Clash of the Elements Part 6 (R): The Scars of Sins Past
by mewmaster93
Summary: In the wake of Gravitus' defeat, a new yet familiar threat targets the Earth with a wave of destruction. But this new threat is merely the prelude to the reawakening of a greater evil from the Elemental Overlord's past. It'll take more than one Elemental Overlord to combat this enemy. And even then, will that be enough? Everything has led to this point...
1. Prologue

At the crack of dawn above the North Pole, where the sun peeked through the clouds and the ice spread as far as the temperatures would allow, there lied a city. A floating city. A city that was new to this world, but had long since existed elsewhere.

The city was filled with nothing but huts, a temple, and a Pyramid erected towards the heavens. The people, dressed in colorful robes and wooden sandals, looked human enough. Their thoughts were mired by confusion, for they hadn't yet adapted to this strange new world they found themselves in.

A young woman with shoulder-length teal and pink hair, wearing a similarly colored robes with cloud prints, confidently strut her way amidst her kinfolk. Her hands were wrapped in their sleeves before her waist, and she held her head up high with a dauntless smile.

She alone was tasked with the burden of leadership among her race, and as her first task, she had brought this city from her home planet to this strange new world called "Earth". And now she wished to gauge their reactions, to see if there were any concerns she could alleviate. But it wouldn't be long before her path would cross with another...

"Lady Auris." The man spoke, his voice deep, powerful, yet also respectful.

The woman froze in place as the man's shadow draped over her from behind. She was a woman of amazonian stature, standing at approximately six foot-one, and yet the man dwarfed her still. Gently tilting her head back with an unease to her expression, she whispered in response, "What is it...Damascus?"

A man with the muscular stature of a Greecian hero lied in her view. His skin rough, his beard groomed but shaggy, and his black hair long and tied into dreadlocks. He wore baggy pants and a glittery rainbow vest, with his chest bandaged up, barely containing his bulging pecs. In his right hand he grasped a naginata with an emerald blade, while at his wrist lied a bracelet wielding a stone with a pitch black mark.

The man, Damascus, folded his left hand before his chest and took a bow, "I wasn't expecting you to be out and about so soon."

Auris trembled slightly and diverted her gaze from the man. Her eyelids sank in melancholy, but her tone portrayed a strong will of heart, "Do you see me as being so weak?"

"So much has happened to you lately. I would not blame you for wanting some peace and quiet."

"...You know I can't. The people need reassurance in this stressful time. As the daughter of Borealis Aurora, their care lies in my hands." Auris laid a hand on her chest and gazed towards the people.

Damascus lifted his head at them for a moment, then narrowed his eyes with a subdued growl. He then rested his hand comfortably on Auris' shoulder, and felt her tremble at the touch. He immediately retracted, offering his condolences.

"I...understand. But is this really what you want?"

Auris laid a hand where she was touched and glanced at the ground, "It doesn't matter what I want. If our people don't get accustomed to this new world, then it will only lead to trouble."

Damascus raised his hand towards the sky with a smile, "The atmosphere is breathable, albeit a little thinner than on our world. And with Catherine's cloaking shield, I imagine it will be a long, long time before this primitive world learns of our existence."

He then stood a little closer to her and whispered, "I insist, Lady Auris, that you take care of yourself for once. And I shall lead our people in your stead."

He was unaware of Auris widening her eyes with a glint of fear in her stare until she turned her head his way and shook it.

"I'm sorry Damascus. It has to be me," As she looked away from him she remarked, "But...I thank you for your offer. Above all else, I want you to know that your efforts will always be appreciated."

Damascus let her wander off without either of them saying another word. He furrowed his brow and his heart beat started pounding against his chest, drowning out all other sounds, even those in his mind. He squeezed his right hand into a fist, and scowled.

"The Ten Sages have breathed their last breath...And still I must wait?!" Damascus closed his eyes and calmed himself with a slow, tired breath, then started mumbling to himself, "Why? What cause is there to this madness?"

As he opened his eyes the air suddenly felt cold and still. But the stillness did not end there. He looked around and saw that he was the only one who could move. The color was washed away, leaving everything a dreary shade of gray.

"What...what is the meaning of this?" Damascus' head lurched back, the hairs on the back of his neck sticking up on end. He turned around slowly, greeted by the whispers of a widening rift in the fabric of time and space. The portal bulged with cosmic energies unlike anything he'd ever witnessed, but it was what came through it that truly took his breath away.

Malice. So much malice. He has **felt **hatred. He has **lived** and **breathed** hatred. But what crawled out of that rift eclipsed any of his feelings or experiences by a deep, unapproachable margin. And, to his surprise, the source of this hatred was only human...

Or to be more precise, it _looked_ human. The source of hatred wore pale skin kept warm with a red t-shirt, blue jeans, and rough looking white sneakers. They didn't have much muscle but their figure was clearly masculine. He couldn't have been any older than sixteen. His short brown hair looked dirty, but otherwise fine. His hands were tucked into his pockets, and he dragged his feet along the ground, bringing along with him a heat that charred the ground as black as ash.

The ground cracked in his wake as he stopped ten feet away from the man and deigned to raise his head. Immediately the sight of his bright, crimson irises made every semblance of courage disappear from Damascus' heart. The piercing screech of a pained bird penetrated his eardrums, and with it came the devastating crackling of a world-ending inferno.

The boy cracked a grin and said to him in a high-pitched, gravelly, echoing tone, "If you have time to groan then you have time to take action...Damascus."

Damascus furrowed his brows and felt his heart racing against his chest. The boy's tone of familiarity spoke to his sense of reasoning and a bit of his fear began to subside. He looked to the boy's means of entry along with the frozen scenery, and quickly deduced one crucial fact from this enigmatic figure.

"You...aren't from this time period, are you?"

The boy simply chuckled and started to be wreathed in flame. Somehow, it made the glow in his eyes brighter. Then, as a gesture of feigned ignorance, he remarked, "Maybe not. Time is relative, after all."

Damascus brushed his left hand up near his hip and his fingers started to glow with his aura. He narrowed his gaze at this source of malice and thought, _"I cannot let him live..."_

A loud snap was followed by a painful crack coming from beside his body. He grit his teeth and looked down to find that all five of his fingers were being pulled back.

"As easy as it would be to snap your fingers in half, it would be a waste of our time." The boy, seemingly without moving a muscle, released his phantasmal grip on Damascus' bones. The man then quickly raised his hand to his chest and tried to squeeze it.

He looked at the boy again and thought to himself, _"This feeling...It was as if he was controlling the calcium in my bones. Calcium...a mineral..." _

He slowly opened his eyes all the way and came to a sudden realization, "Impossible...You couldn't possibly be...the Elemental Overlord?"

"Close," The boy cackled with a mild sense of delight, "You can say you are in the presence of...a new breed of lifeform."

Damascus hadn't yet made a decent effort to fight this stranger, but from one look knew he was outmatched. Silently closing his eyes, he took in a deep breath, then relaxed his arms at his sides and stood tall before the malice.

"And what would this 'new lifeform' want with me? If this is your approach, then I can only assume you mean to silence me."

"No," The boy replied in a humored tone, "You must live for everything to turn out correctly."

There was something...curious about the way they spoke. There was a subject that was clearly being evaded, and yet it was one that would be so easily coerced.

Raising his head and not making an effort to hide his contempt towards the boy's presence, Damascus remarked, "Humanity is nowhere close to being capable of making clothes like that. Are you from _this _Earth?"

"Hehehehe..." The boy seemed prepared to feign ignorance. But to Damascus' surprise he said, "Yes. This exact, _putrid_ world."

"And from how far into the future?" Damascus does not realize that his tone was getting more relaxed the more he managed to coerce out of the boy.

"Two-thousand years." The boy replied.

"Hmmm..." But there was still room for surprises. And to hear so great a number did rattle Damascus' suspicion of disbelief for a brief moment. With a deep, hearty chuckle, he raised his hand out and shook his head.

"There must be some mistake. Even with the highest expectations, I will only live for sixty more years. And yet...you make it sound as though I am still present in your time."

"You are only...half correct. The man named Damascus will die today, that part of history cannot be changed. But in his place, a greater man shall rise to the occasion..."

Damascus took his hand to his chin and murmured in a firmer tone of voice, "I ask again...What do you want with me?"

"You've wanted power all this time but have never taken the measures to seize it. The Ten Sages are dead. The foolish Elemental Overlord and the Dark King are gone. That wench is weak...And all she has left to shackle you are worthless, honeyed words of praise."

Damascus felt his heart start to thump loudly against his chest. He tensely smiled and remarked with a staggering degree of hesitation, "L-Lady Auris isn't-"

The boy suddenly widened his eyes and his mad, piercing gaze froze the man's mouth shut. He laughed aloud, proclaiming to him a screech of liberation, "Free yourself from these shackles Damascus! Or cower in servitude until death takes you!"

He then creased his grin out as wide as his face could allow it and whispered, "What are a few morals cast aside compared to the sense of liberation you gain in return? Trust me."

Damascus started to tremble as his smile turned into a more genuine one. He then started laughing. Quietly, then more audibly as the seconds passed. He brought a hand to his forehead, and the laughter suddenly ceased to be.

"Never would I have expected a messenger of destiny to take your shape..." Damascus scraped his fingernails down the side of his face and peeled down part of his grin. With one last chuckle he then murmured, "But your actions confuse me...I am no expert on time travel, but I do believe you are changing the course of history, no?"

"The cause has been replaced by the effect shall remain the same. This meeting will not cause a divergence nor a paradox." The boy's maddened tone couldn't defy the confidence he wore proudly on his face.

"And so I ask a third time...What do you want from me?"

"...Your trust is not so easily gained. Very well..." The boy pulled a strange black and gold stone from his right pocket and hung it before his chest. His flames burned into the stone, forcing it to glow bright. The golden glow went from the stone to the man's body, lasting only for a few seconds.

When it passed Damascus felt strange. Not that it was possible to describe why.

"Your ability to age has been removed. Even if your head is sliced off, your flesh will not entropy. Now you can last as long as you'd like...To acquire the power you covet so dearly."

The boy quickly tucked the stone into his pocket and said, "But in exchange for this gift, there is something you must do."

"And what is that?" Damascus inquired.

"You must go and meet with the one called...Justek Arcavira." Upon hearing that name, Damascus felt a chill down his spine.

"H-Him? Why...him?"

The boy turned for the rift from whence he came and started walking towards it, "Everything will fall into place in time..."

Cryptic words were not what the man intended to end this meeting on. He stretched his hand out and proclaimed with a tinge of desperation, "Wait! Will you not tell me your name?!"

The boy froze in place and an insatiable malice exuded from his backside. He creaked his head back with the speed of a rusty gear and narrowly glared at the man.

"**We**...are the Phoenix of Destruction," He then lifted his head slightly to show his sinister smile as he poised one last question to the man, "And just who...are _you_?"

Damascus coiled his hand before his chest and let out a short, deep chuckle, "You can refer to me from now on as...Gravitus."

"_If_ we meet again, that is..." Leaving those ominous words behind as a lingering, lasting impression, the Phoenix of Destruction dragged his feet through the rift and arrived in the middle of space overlooking the Earth and the moon.

At the exact moment of his return to the present he watched as a powerful cone of rainbow light shone brightly past the northern atmosphere of the planet. Humbled in battle, his pride now broken, Gravitus' body was sent flying through space, his desolation bringing a very big smile to the boy's face.

His body tingled with excitement as he curled his hands into his pockets, tickling the boundary of the strange stone with his flaming fingertips. He then raised his head in contempt towards the planet and whispered, "Two seals down...One to go."

His heartbeat was almost still as his crimson gaze burned with a reflection of the one called Mew, who was omnipresent in his thoughts.

"The time of reckoning is at hand...All things will burn, starting with you...My loathsome copy."

**CLASH OF THE ELEMENTS PART 6 (R): THE SCARS OF SINS PAST**

**Prologue: Sanity Keeps on Slipping**

_Next Time: Calm Before the Firestorm_


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: Day of Destruction**

_Three days later..._

Since the defeat of Gravitus the saviors of Sancturia, Mew and Kairi, have been at Mew's humble mountain home for some much needed R&R. Sunny days have kept their spirits high and the fresh mountain air has made their late night rests relaxing.

But on this day, in the mid-afternoon hours, the two found themselves locked up in the living room doing their own things. Mew was dressed in his standard affair black shirt and blue jeans, and Kairi was wearing her green shirt and dark blue jeans.

Mew sat on the couch before the TV, a controller in hand and his fingers pawing away at the buttons at a rapid pace. He stuck the tip of his tongue out and a mild sweat displayed just how locked into the gameplay he was at the current moment.

Kairi, on the other hand, sat comfortably upright in the chair to his right, reading a book that she had brought with her from home. She gently flipped through the pages, but upon every turn she'd poke her head up to see what Mew was up to.

"Come on come on!" Mew proclaimed as he squeezed the controller in both hands and watched as a ranking was displayed for his efforts.

"B?!" Lamenting in defeat, Mew slumped back into the couch and plopped his controller onto his lap, "Ah come on, that was my best run!"

He tossed one arm out towards the screen and hollered over to Kairi, "Can you believe it?! How can they expect me to succeed when the window's so tight on that rocket?!"

She pulled her book down from before her eyes and replied dully, "Mew, I don't even know what you're talking about."

Mew dropped his arm to the couch and said with a sly smirk and nudging of his eyebrows, "Oh don't think I didn't notice you peeking at me playing this past hour."

Kairi pressed one finger between the pages of her book to act as a bookmark as she put it on her legs. She then closed her eyes with a mild blush in her cheeks and grumbled out the side of her mouth, "I-Its not like there's anything else to look at right now!"

"Anything else would probably more entertaining than stuffing your face in that book." Mew's unwarranted jab at her hobby got her eyes flared up in an instant.

"What would you know! You've never read a book in your life!"

"That's not tr-"

"Mangas don't count." Kairi bluntly countered.

"...M-Maybe not but-"

"Neither do comics." She said with a more stoic flare.

"...Yeah-"

"Or strategy guides." Her tone turned cold as ice, leaving Mew chuckling dryly to himself as he swiveled back in view of the TV and picked his controller up to go another round at the stage.

After a brief period of silence where Kairi picked up her book once more, Mew commented aloud, "Alright alright I admit, that was uncalled for. But come on Kairi, you're clearly interested in what I'm doing. Why not drop the paperback for a few minutes and go a round with me in this game?"

Kairi clamped her book shut in the same manner and rolled her eyes, "I-I don't care about your game! Be-besides...I got to keep my brain sharp for the next semester."

She put on a lovely display of resistance but by Mew knew exactly which buttons he needed to push. With a playful smile he waggled the controller right in her line of sight and remarked, "Come oooon, you know you want to. Contrary to popular belief, video games don't project brain draining UV rays."

She tried to pull her eyes away from the controller but Mew could see them darting back very briefly. She then quickly tried to pull the old "put my arms under the chest and look haughty" routine while declaring, "N-No way! I refuse!"

So for the icing on the cake, Mew tempted her with the one thing she'd never be able to let go of, "Ok fine...Besides, you know you'd lose anyways."

Mew then positioned himself straight in front of the TV and hovered his controller before his waist. Only a few seconds later, Kairi sat herself down beside him and firmly pushed him to the left side of her couch with her butt. She had a controller gripped tightly in her hands and her competitive glare focused entirely on the TV.

"Pick the mode." She told him firmly.

With a jolly chuckle Mew replied "You got it!" and went straight for the multiplayer menu.

_Ten minutes later..._

Kairi's face was planted on her legs with the controller held above her head. Mew laid his controller on his lap, stretched his arms up high with nary a look of strain on his face, and said in a calm manner, "Weeeeeell! Good games Kairi, but it appears I'm the winner!"

She swung her head up and let out a grunt through her nostrils similar to an angry boar's. She then tossed her controller onto the table, planted her arms under her chest, and plopped back into the couch.

"Stupid busted controller..." Mew could make out her grumbling under her breath. It was a response he hadn't expected from her, even back when she was at her worst.

"_Huh, I wonder if she used to play this game with her sister a lot..." _Assuming that, Mew rubbed the back of his head and thought to himself, _"Maybe I should've held back a little bit..."_

He saw Kairi pouting as she propped her feet up on the table and avoided eye contact with him. Her frustrations, vented out as huffs of hot air through her nose, seemed to be derived from another source of irritation besides losing a video game.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Mew offered.

After a little display of resistance Kairi turned to Mew and said, "...When are we going to go out and do something?"

Mew fluttered his eyelashes a little and replied, "We went hiking yesterday."

Kairi swung her eyes up and let out a groan. She then admitted, in her own way, "Y-Yeah, that was pretty cool...T-That mountain goat was pretty cute too..."

She quickly shook her head, sat upright, and looked Mew in the eyes, "But you know what I mean! When you said you'd bring me down to Earth I thought that meant we'd go, y'know, traveling the globe, exploring new locales, eating at exquisite restaurants..."

Mew cocked his head back and chuckled, "Well I'm not made of money Kairi. I can take us anywhere you want to go but as far as food and souvenirs go..."

"Yeah yeah I get that but..." Kairi's eyelids sank and she spoke to him in a soft tone of voice, "But that doesn't mean we have to stay cramped up in this house all the time, right? Isn't there _somewhere_ exciting we can go to?"

If there was one thing Mew was a sucker for, it was a cute face. Not that he needed the extra push, seeing as how what she said was reason enough for him to reconsider what they'd been doing lately.

After moving the controller from lap to table he picked up the remote, waggled it around his face, and relented to Kairi's request, "Alright. I'll flip through the channels and we'll see if there's anywhere you'd like to go. Unless...you already got an idea in mind?"

"History books aren't always good inspirations for tourists," Kairi looked at the TV and after a few moments decided, "Just...try and keep it local for now."

Her fingers were fidgeting before her waist. It wasn't hard to imagine that for as much as she wanted to travel the world, it would be tough to blend in with other cultures.

"_Lucky me that Aurians speak the universal language of English..." _Mew thought, reminiscing about the past in relation to Kairi's current struggle.

He then turned off the console and flipped back onto the main channels. The first thing he saw was a news station talking about recent events.

"Oh hold up a second." Mew paused, feeling the topic was important for the both of them.

"_Security of Defense Judas Jeremiah is being questioned today on the recent weather phenomenon and reports of a satellite falling out of the sky over the Arctic Circle. We go live with footage on his report."_

A man in his mid-fifties with short, slick backed brown hair and grey tips walked out onto a podium in the White House lobby. He wore a normal white buttoned shirt, a plaid tie, and thin strapped suspenders. He had a cup of hot coffee in his hands and his face was starting to wrinkle.

The man presented himself with confidence before a crowd of reporters and instantly addressed all concerns, _"Our team has been working on the clock to find the source of the storm outbreak. There is a slight possibility that someone out there has made a weather control device, but as it is yet unconfirmed, I beg my fellow people of the United States to not panic."_

"_What about the satellite?!" _A few reporters raced to ask.

"_Minor malfunction in the anti-gravity systems. We are fortunate that, as a smaller satellite, it burned up quickly on reentry and did not cause any lasting harm to the ice caps."_

He then waved his hand at the crowd and left the podium, his departure covered from the photo-hungry reporters by his two security guards.

Mew stared at his mild-mannered man and slowly blinked his eyes. He didn't even realized he was in a trance until his heart jumped upon Kairi saying, "Ugh!"

He then stammered her way, "W-What's up?"

She had one hand planted on her face, and slid her fingertips down to the chin. She then grumbled in bitterness, "That bastard Gravitus! We're lucky that Sancturia didn't get exposed after what he pulled!"

"Lucky...Hrrmmm..." Mew stared at the TV one more time then closed his eyes to put the man's presence out of sight and out of mind for now.

"Its a bit of luck and a bit of Saturn's genius. That cloaking barrier of hers is top-notch!" He said as he started flipping through the channels.

"Anyways enough of that! Lets find us a place to go!" At a button press a second Mew was practically speedrunning cable but giving Kairi only a frame to look at what the channels had to offer.

"H-Hold up!" Kairi proclaimed in a flustered tone before snatching the remote out of Mew's hand and holding it up beside her face.

Mew realized what he was doing and chuckled right in Kairi's grumpy face, "Sorry, I'm so used to mashing buttons."

"...Its fine," She sounded almost understanding of his problem, "Just let me browse through them."

She took the reins and started over from the beginning. Now spending a few seconds at a time glancing at the channels, Kairi seemed to have difficulty finding anything to her liking. She wasn't being picky. The channels were just unfortunately airing a bunch of olden day movies and sitcoms.

"Wait..." But then she stopped on another news channel that was unique to this state. There was a newscaster standing on the outskirts of this big city near a lake. The city was surrounded by freeways and was filled with plenty of skyscrapers. There were also a couple sports stadiums on the southern end.

"What's that?" However, Kairi pointed to a strange tower close to the center of the city. It had probably the most average height out of all the buildings in the city but its design was one-of-a-kind. It looked like a UFO positioned atop a three-sided stand. It was futuristic, even in this modern day.

"That's the Space Needle. Its Seattle's famous landmark. It ain't on the level of the Seven Wonders of the World but...I've personally always had a fondness for the place."

"So its just a giant monument?" Kairi inquired.

"Not quite," Mew said in a humored tone, "There's an elevator that takes people to the top floor where you can get a scenic view of the area..."

He then smiled and whispered, "Aaaaand, there's a restaurant up there as well."

Kairi's eyes lit up like a pair of newborn stars and her burrowed down childlike innocence took a grasp over her tone of voice, "R-Really?!"

"Seattle's just a couple minute flight from here, buuuuut..." Mew leaned back into the couch with his arms behind his head, "If you don't have any cash..."

Kairi suddenly whipped out a dainty leather wallet with a purple frilly border and proclaimed, "You get us there and I'll pay for it, ok?!"

"_Oh man! She's really wanting to go there!" _Mew gently pushed her wallet down and remarked, "Its about time for lunch I suppose."

"And god knows anything's better than another vegetarian special..." Kairi groaned with her tongue dangling out in disgust.

Mew shrugged his shoulders and said, "Hey hey hey...I _produce_ good produce!"

She nearly slapped him upside the head with her wallet. But by masterfully lifting himself off the couch he made haste for the door and opened the way outside. With a courteous bow he brushed his hand out like a butler and said in a joking tone, "M'lady."

"Hardy harr Mew..." Kairi snipped back while chuckling to herself. She got up and a few moments later, after shutting the TV off, the two were out of the house.

"Ok, just stay close to me and follow my lead." Mew advised as he held his hands out and started producing a cloud-like material to envelop the both of them.

"Brrr...Could you warm it up a little?" Kairi trembled, her body hunched over with her arms clutched against her waist.

"Who ever heard of a warm cloud?" Mew said, being surprisingly serious about _this_ of all things.

"If you're that cold you could always cuddle up to me for warmth..." But then he was right back to his usual self, and Kairi karate chopped him on the back of the skull for it.

"I-If its only a couple minutes, t-then I'll make it through..." She proclaimed.

Mew, gently rubbing the sore spot on the back of his head without a care in the world, told her "If you insist" before taking off towards the sky.

They left the mountains behind and headed west towards Seattle. It was a short flight, and fortunately there was no bird traffic. Once Mew was over the city he poked his head through to make sure they would have a safe landing.

"_Nobody's at the very top. Probably cause its lunch time. Excellent!" _So he successfully lands them on top of the Space Needle, dissipating the cloud before it could draw anyone's attention to them.

"And here we are! Welcome to the Space Needle!" Mew presented the mighty tower by throwing his arms up and out.

Kairi took a moment to peek over the side. The color was quickly flushed from her face and she retreated. A strong, cold, quiet breeze stroked her hair to the right, forcing her to put a hand up to hold it in place. She stood there for a while after, her eyes glistening with wonder.

"We're so high up..." She whispered.

"_She's lived in a floating city all of her life..." _What started as a joking critique of her observation turned into something a little more understanding as Mew thought about it more, _"Though I guess this is the first time she's ever had something to compare to scale..." _

City landscaping and hillside houses appeared as something she could reach out and hold in the palm of her hand. Humans that were her size now crawled around as ants on the ground. So many of these thoughts and feelings were being expressed in the way she quietly glided her hand around in the air.

Mew didn't have to interrupt her, her stomach did a good enough job by gurgling out a cry of hunger. Her cheeks turned pink and she rubbed her tummy. Then, she quietly turned to Mew with a canned laugh and said, "C-Can we go inside to eat now?"

"Yeah!" Mew said with a smile, "Follow me...again!"

The elevator to the cafe was a few steps away. As a continued string of good luck, no one was on it at the time. So they made it to their next destination without any trouble.

Kairi had to take a step back right after her first step forward off the elevator. The floor was moving, slowly but surely, in a clockwise circle. A bunch of white glass tables and chairs covered the perimeter of this floor, while stainless glass windows offered a breathtaking view of the surrounding area.

Mew strutted out into the open where a few other people watched. He then bombastically drew everyone's attention to him and Kairi by proclaiming, "Well come on! Lets grab a seat and order up!"

So while he had an all too easy time sitting down it took Kairi quite a bit longer to shuffle past the odd gazes Mew's comment drew towards them. But once she was at her seat she let out a heavy sigh and the rest of the people were out of her mind.

"...So how does this work exactly?" Kairi whispered to Mew with her fingers tensely positioned at her waist.

"May I take your order?" A server got the jump on the two of them from behind and Kairi nearly leaped out of her seat.

"Eep!" She proclaimed, and the server cautiously stepped back.

"Is everything ok?" He asked of Mew.

Mew waved a hand down and said, "First time up here. She's a little afraid of heights."

"Well, I'll have you know that the Space Needle's been structurally sound since its creation. And our food? Top notch." The server reached for the menus at his belt and handed them out.

Mew leaned back comfortably into the chair and remarked, "I already know what I'm having. One toasted chicken and mozzarella sandwich. Marinara sauce for dipping, strawberry lemonade for a drink."

The server put that menu back and Kairi took the other one for herself. He then asked, "Do you need time to decide?"

Kairi squinted at the menu and quickly picked up on something to her tastes. She hung the menu over her shoulder and said, "I guess I'll try the toasted three meat sandwich. A-And get me a small root beer."

"Excellent choice. It'll be right out." Once the server took that menu he was ready to move. But before he took a step Kairi turned around in her chair, got on her knees, and yelled to him.

"W-Wait!" It was an odd sight for Mew to see her act so timid around strangers, but she was lucky to not have run afoul of an impatient server.

"Yes?" They kindly inquired.

Kairi reached into her wallet while asking, "Will my money be good here?"

"Oh? You're from out of the country?" The server said pleasantly. Though when the dollars came out of Kairi's pants his expression turned blank with confusion.

Mew felt the atmosphere become awkward as the served had trouble bringing himself to say, "Y-Yes...I...I guess we take dollars here."

He was trying not to be sarcastic but a bit of it slipped into his tone. He then turned and walked away. Kairi was left blinking until she sat back down properly and put her money away.

"Did...did that guy say dollars?"

Mew closed his eyes and with a smile started to count down in his head, _"5, 4, 3, 2, 1..."_

Kairi's eyes widened and she plopped her face flat down onto the table. She burrowed her fingertips into the back of her head and let out a very, VERY angry groan.

"Augh! That son of a bitch was taking ideas from Earth the whole time!" Her realization was thankfully muffled enough that only Mew heard it.

Mew had a hearty chuckle at the whole affair, "What, the constant advertisements for _Sunbucks_ didn't tip you off?"

She swung her head up and waggled a finger at him accusingly, "T-That was just a coincidence! This is outright plagiarism!"

Mew crossed his arms up to his chest and after a deep breath said, "Now that you mention it though...We never did find out just _why_ he adopted Earth culture into Sancturia specifically..."

He then gave a rough shrug and proclaimed, "But who cares about that right now?! Didn't we come here to enjoy ourselves?"

Kairi pressed and wiggled her lips around then muttered "Yeah yeah" in agreement. She tapped her right fingers on the table and grumbled aloud, "Can't believe he got away with that for so long...Asshole."

The top of the Space Needle kept spinning slowly, giving the two of them a chance to survey the scenery. Kairi quieted down quickly then laid her hands against the sides of her face, her elbows on the table. Mew could see her paddling her feet around underneath the table, a sign her mind was drifting off somewhere.

Mew got in a similar position and waited around for her to say something. Her first word after a couple minutes was a melancholic murmur of "Shina..."

Mew closed his eyes and quietly sighed, _"You can't replace her Mew, but..." _

He reached out and tapped her on the shoulder. She perked up slightly and he poked out at the window.

"I actually do come here every now and then for a change of scenery. Its probably one of my favorite scenic views in the whole wide world."

"Huh?" She said in a dazed tone.

"Just look out there for a moment, what do you see?"

He could see many things. He even checked them off in his head as Kairi identified them.

"There's a snowy mountain in the distance...The lake's sparkling cause of the sun...The city's bustling...And uhhh, there are hills with houses?"

"Yeah exactly," Mew leaned back into the chair and propped his feet up on the table, "From this one location you get to see most of what the Earth has to offer. Hills, mountains, lakes, cities...All that's missing is the desert!"

Kairi smiled and her tone got a little more chipper, "Well when you put it that way..."

"Auh! And you should SEE this place when the sun sets! Mt. Rainier looks _gorgeous_!"

Mew turned aside for a moment and saw her shaking her head at him. She then sat upright and said softly, "You really do like the Earth don't you?"

"Of course, its my home," Mew started turning back to the windows and remarked, "And I'd do anything to protect it."

As he looked outside there was something out there. It was floating, by itself, independent of any forces of gravity. He looked closer. It wasn't a something. It was someone. A boy, probably about his age, with a red shirt, blue jeans and short brown hair.

A cold feeling filled the air around him. All noise deafened to silence. The boy's body became surrounded by fire. It was a familiar fire. _His _fire. Fire is fire no matter what, but the energy exuded was all too similar to his. The boy almost seemed to stare back. His eyes were glistening like demonic rubies. His hand raised out before his chest. Fire gathered to the palm.

Mew's heart dropped one powerful, hardened beat and his skin felt cold. Kairi's deaf cry of his name barely registered. As his pupils shrank, he forced himself out of the chair and leaped towards Kairi. He held her to the ground and kept her wrapped around his body, his back turned to the incoming fireball.

Everything was black, then it was red. Fire exploded throughout the seams of the building. Blistering heat scorched the flesh and sinew off every human inside. The rough explosion tossed the top of the Space Needle off its support.

Glass shattered from the force of the blast. An opening was made, and Mew's body rolled out with Kairi in tow. He was panicking, his mind jumbled. There was barely any noise being made. They plummeted to the ground rapidly, the surface filled with screams of horror.

Mew suddenly thrust his eyes open. He saw the Space Needle's top, consumed with fire, hurtling towards the ground like a meteor.

"Sorry!" He proclaimed to a shaking Kairi as he let her go and flew straight towards the debris. He slammed his palms against the bottom and easily held it back from falling any further.

It was only a stroke of luck that the rest of the tower wasn't coming down at this very moment. It didn't matter. The damage had been done. The assailant incited fear and panic into the crowd of normal humans. They scrambled to get away from the sight of the tower ignited in flames, the smoke burning high into the sky.

This gave Mew an opening to put the remains of the Space Needle onto the ground, where he didn't think twice before dowsing the whole thing with water from the nearby fountain. The whole thing was now charred black and filled with molten glass. The skeletal remains of its occupants were frozen in their last moments of writhing agony. Jaws, unhinged in screams. Parents, coddling their young in a fruitless moment of protection.

Mew's heart raced. _He could have saved those lives_. But now, it was too late. _And its all his fault._

"**BMMM!" "CRSSHHH!" "KSSSHH!"**

It wasn't ending with just the Space Needle. Mew didn't want to look back, but he had to face the reality of this moment. The attacker stayed where he was and casually bombed Seattle with fireballs, creating wanton destruction with hundreds of bodies burning at his feet.

Mew bit his teeth down and was prepared to charge up when Kairi came running at him proclaiming, "M-Mew, are you alright?!"

She had landed in an alleyway, and had to push her way through the last people attempting to escape the chaos. Her presence kept Mew grounded in a calm sense of mind for the time being.

"Thank god you're alright. Sorry about that, its just-"

Kairi's pupils were shrunken and she was low on breath. She hastily pointed up at the figure in the sky and proclaimed, "F-Forget about me! W-W-What about him? Why...why does he have the same kind of energy as you?!"

Mew narrowly looked up at boy while Kairi took a shot in the dark, "Is that that brother you were telling me about? Riku was it?"

"No way. Riku would never do something like this." Mew denied while firmly shaking his head.

"How would you know? Its been two years since you saw him!"

The possibility couldn't be denied, but there was one thing that disproved it for Mew.

"Riku's got black hair, this guy has brown. And that sure as hell doesn't look like a dye job..."

Kairi lowered her head after catching her breath, then proclaimed at the top of her lungs, "W-We don't have time for this! Right now he's destroying the city!"

"You're right!" Mew swung his head down with a hard nod then quickly looked around. Against all odds, a large piece of cloth from a pair of picnickers had survived the fire. Mew ran right over, picked it up, then brought it back to tie around Kairi's head like a hood.

She looked at him in the heat of the moment and got insanely confused. He then planted his hands on her shoulders to stare her straight in the eyes and proclaim, "This'll keep your identity a secret while you go help the citizens evacuate!"

"E-Evacuate? But what about-"

"I'm clearly better suited for fighting this asshole. But it won't be easy if I gotta worry about the citizens being in the way. Please Kairi, you're the only one I can trust to do this."

Kairi paused for a moment then firmly nodded her head and proclaimed, "O-Ok! But once I'm done helping I'll be there for back-up alright?!"

"...Right!" Mew snapped his hands off of her then turned to the sky. Once Kairi had flown off Mew grit his fists taut beside his hips then rocketed straight at the mad bomber.

He threw his fist back, widened his eyes, and took a swing straight for the back of the bastard's head. The boy silently swung his right hand up and grabbed Mew's fist with ease. Mew pressed forward with all his might but couldn't make a difference in the struggle.

The boy twisted and tilted his head back to face Mew. His teeth were locked into a nasty, grimy white grin, and his eyes glowed like fire. Mew's mouth slowly went agape only for him to quickly be shoved back by a gentle flick of the boy's wrist.

Mew propped himself upright and shook the trembling off his body, staring the assailant down face-to-face as they dropped their attack on the city.

"_What is with this guy...?" _Mew settled into a state of uneasy as the boy's movements proved akin to that of a sluggish marionette. The boy drooped his head down then dangled his hands out beside his chest. One hand had a black leather glove on it, with a thin magnetic plate on each side.

The boy slowly started clapping, greeting Mew with a raspy, unhinged tone of voice, "Did you enjoy our tribute of marrow and dust, o'mighty 'Elemental Overlord'?"

Mew tried to keep himself off the edge by cracking a smile and telling a mild joke, "I'm flattered you know that I like BBQs..."

He then narrowed his gaze at the boy and got a lot more growl-y as he said, "But I prefer mine with a few coals tossed in..._Not human lives_."

The boy raised his head and jeered with a smirk, "Humanity was born from ash so it could thus return to ash. To raise their worth any higher would be only _one_ of your many follies."

Mew held his ground and raised his fists up slowly, _"Why does it feel like...I've met this guy before?"_

"Alright you mad bomber, what the hell do you want?!" He then demanded to know.

"What **we** want is something only you can provide..." The boy laid his hands by his shoulders and stretched his fingers as far as they'd go. Fire exploded around his body, letting loose a pained screech similar to that of a bird.

Mew felt a few sweat drops form on his face but remained vigilant in the face of danger, "We? I guess you'd have to have a few screws loose to do what you're doing..."

"Is that really any way to treat a familiar face?" The boy suddenly blurted without prompting. Mew froze momentarily and his heart skipped a beat.

"...Who are you?" He wondered.

"We've met before, but at the same we have not. You're more welcome to piece that together..." The glint in the boy's eyes turned a darker shade as his flames were corrupted by a scorching black tint around the edge, "That is..._assuming you don't __**die**__ first_."

His nasally hiss exuded with an unnatural degree of confidence. Mew gulped deeply, a sensation he was unfamiliar with until now. This mysterious, malicious boy then tucked his hands into his pockets and chuckled.

"But for now you can call us...The Phoenix of Destruction!"

_Next Time: Deadly Relations_


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Clash of the Elements**

Mew placed his fists below view of his face and leveled his options against the one calling himself the Phoenix of Destruction. He cautiously looked at the ground. The citizens have fully evacuated the immediate area. The remnants of the Space Needle had stopped burning.

"_I need to contain the battle to this area," _There was no priority greater than that, _"But who knows how-"_

The Phoenix came blazing forth and punched Mew square in the side of his jaw. Mew heard his bones crack as he was pushed back. The Phoenix quickly followed through by slashing his right hand up towards his chin.

Mew pulled back in the nick of time but the ferocity of the attack shook and burned the air around him. For him, it was the equivalent of standing near a rocket during take-off. Mew brushed the bottom of his chin with the back of his hand then shook his head slightly.

"Fine, if that's the way you want to play..." Mew's words widened the grin of his foe.

Mew thrust his hands up and fired a few compressed air blasts into the Phoenix's chest. They made no effort to block or draw a weapon. But Mew did. He went straight towards summoning his sword in both hands and swinging it down at the Phoenix's head.

They responded not with action, but stillness. The blade of unbridled metal crushed down upon his skull and did nothing but push his head down an inch. Mew looked shocked and murmured in his head, _"That's not a good sign."_

"Pathetic. Just as we remember you..." The Phoenix gave a short, scathing review before launching a counterattack built entirely on his pure fury.

With just one punch to his chest, Mew was sent crashing into the ground. His back trudged up the concrete and dirt, while his skull bashed through multiple buildings. Finally he stopped, but only once he had reached the bay a mile away.

He stood on the surface and looked up in the sky. He could do nothing but watch as the Phoenix effortlessly tore a few buildings out of the ground, then crunched them down into spheres with the squeezing of his fists.

Mew hunched down on the water and dispelled his sword. As his foe ignited the glass and steel, turning them into molten meteors, Mew closed his eyes and delicately pulled large amounts of water up into equally sized spheres.

He then sprinted forth, the water sticking to his back. The meteors came falling, one second after the next. Once back on dry land Mew kicked off the ground towards the Phoenix. He doused a meteor in water then drew his sword to slash it in half. The second meteor suffered the same fate.

For the third meteor, Mew dragged his sword over his head and swung it forward, spinning to build up speed and strength. The last meteor stood no chance, and it joined its brethren in the waters.

Mew approached his opponent and brought the full force of his blade unto their head. This time he managed to knock him down a peg by lowering him halfway to the ground. He broke his momentum with a quick turnaround and then did a firm, biting smirk.

The Phoenix immediately rose to meet him with his eyes glistening with madness. They smashed their fist into his chest and lightning erupted from his back like a cloudburst. Seizure inducing flashes of light scoured the city, the roar of thunder deafening Mew's ears to the sounds of his bones cracking from the multiple punches.

Mew gathered enough strength to fight through his foe's assault and plant a palm on his face. He blasted him with enough compressed air to slice through an airplane and that got him to back off temporarily.

Mew wasn't taking any chances though. He dove down and axe-kicked the Phoenix in the head, sending him plummeting to the ground. But with the throbbing pain Mew felt in his leg after, he had to wonder how much his successful hits so far we're by his own efforts, or because his foe allowed it.

He slid back a good twenty feet air in the air and hunched over slightly. He held a hovered a hand over his sore abdomen and could feel the pulse of his muscles in beat with his racing heart. He tried to take in and let out a breath but upon doing so felt a trickle of blood exit down his lip.

There wasn't time to worry about that. The ground was shaking. So hard in fact that Mew felt it in the air. The tremors weren't contained around the Phoenix's general vicinity. One quick glance back saw glass breaking on the buildings deeper in Seattle, and that large chunks of freeway were crumbling.

Mew bit his teeth and had faith in Kairi to handle that. For now all he could contribute was breaking his foe's concentration. He dove straight down like a bullet with his fists thrust out before his face. The mad Phoenix pleasantly thrust his eyes open and flashed the widest grin he could.

"Lets have some _fun_..." He whispered as the ground crumbled completely below him for yards around.

They took all the dirt, stone and rebar that kept the ground stable and coiled it into a series of titanic hydras with him at its center. Mew paused as the serpentine monstrosities bit their rebar fangs at him. He swerved past their entangled heads and rose away from the Phoenix of Destruction temporarily.

The hydras grew to rise after him, snapping their jaws for the chance to scar and poison his flesh. Mew bit his teeth down and quickly came up with a plan.

"_Time to turn the tables...!" _In one hand he grasped the power of wind, in the other the power of ice. He imagined a blizzard that could coat Mt. Everest in an instant, and thrust his hand down to unleash that level of cold upon the hydras.

With the beast frozen over in crystal ice Mew smashed it down into chunks with a blast of compressed air, burying the Phoenix under all that cold and weight.

"_Even if you command the elements, that's still gotta hurt." _Mew was confident in telling himself. Tragically, his assessment was off the mark by a long ways.

The ice trembled, then began to crumble. What Mew assumed to be the ice melting was instead a more surprising phenomenon occurring. The ice broke down to microscopic dust and fed the Phoenix through the pores in his skin. Calmly, he breathed the subzero air in like it was a fresh spring breeze.

Defying God's design like the devil he was, the Phoenix turned ice to flame and his body burned brighter and hotter than it did moment's ago. Mew widened and rubbed his eyes, commenting in a moment of abject disbelief.

"H-He can absorb elements into his body?! I...I can't do that!" Mew lowered his eyes for a moment as he wondered aloud, "...Can I?"

The Phoenix squeezed his fists and cracked his head back as far as it'd go. He looked at Mew with utter glee on his face and stated, "That was a fair warm-up."

In the blink of an eye Mew's foe was inches from his face, and robbed him of all sight but that of the black glove holding his head in a vice.

"But I'm sick of this pitiful, human-loving side of you...Its time you got _angry_!" The Phoenix rocketed forward, dragging Mew along with him.

There was only one way he'd be going, and it was the stuff of nightmares for Mew.

"NO!" Mew let out a muffled scream and kicked both his feet as hard as he could into his foe's gut. But there was no reaction beyond deafened laughter.

And by then, it was too late to do anything else. The sound of shattering glass entered and exited Mew's ears in the blink of an eye. The office workers who hadn't left this building yet were a blur. This was just the first building. This sight was repeated five more times, the floors of said buildings being added to this trail of destruction the Phoenix blazed in his wake.

They were approaching the ground. And there were thousands of citizens that hadn't yet gotten the hint to get the hell out of here.

"_I can't fight back like this!" _Mew hastily summoned his sword into his right hand. The high velocity they flew at made it difficult for his finger to reach the white trigger.

"Don't think...I'll let you get away with this!" Mew nevertheless prevailed, his strength fueled by the will to protect, and with the pulling of the trigger his body was enveloped completely in white light.

This pushed him away from the Phoenix and allowed him to regain control over his own momentum. He landed gently in the middle of the crowd and slid a few feet back. Emerging from the light in his angelic Light Form, he immediately had his katana in the sheath and both wings tucked against his back.

"MOVE!" He yelled to the puzzled crowd as he summoned a rectangular corridor of light to contain him and his foe away from their escape. The Phoenix's pursuit did not stall in the slightest. He was a relentless machine of death and destruction. He clawed his hands out, the fire surrounding him as a malevolent bird that hollered a blood-curling screech.

"You're wasting your time!"

"Take this!" Mew rapidly slashed his katana out, bombarding the Phoenix with cleaving blows of pure light that never expanded past the width of the barrier.

And the light, out of all the elements, gave the Phoenix his first moment of pause. The attacks stopped and battered him back. It was telling that he could not absorb this one like he could the rest.

"_So he can't use light!" _Having tested his blind theory, Mew swung his wings out, expanding the scope of the barrier now that most of the humans rightfully listened to their fight or flight response.

"Now you're mine!" Mew bolted forward with his katana locked in the sheathe, and pounded his foe in the chin with an uppercut. The Phoenix went flying straight up past all the buildings, where Mew proclaimed to himself, "Can't let him control the fight. Got to keep him away from here...!"

He immediately turned into a bolt of light and rebounded along the barrier, throwing the Phoenix off kilter. The moment his enemy seemed to recover, Mew went right in for a staggering blow to his chest.

Light splashed out from his wrist, mixed in with a flourish of red embers. He founded his fist caught in the Phoenix's hand, his response thereafter to unceremoniously chuckle.

"Come now..." He raised his head and burrowed the reflection of his hollow gaze of madness into Mew's eyes, "At least try and make this entertaining for us!"

They wrestled control of Mew's flight away from him and tossed him around and around. Mew's body was wildly bashed into the sides of the barrier, the unrestrained blunt force cracking it apart with relative ease. When the walls were done away like glass, the Phoenix threw Mew straight at the nearest building in an attempt to cleave it through.

Mew rallied his strength back in the nick of time and planted his feet against the window panes. The glass was broken but it was a better service to the people inside than the death his foe had intended for them.

Mew swiped his right arm out and launched blades of light straight towards the Phoenix. They tucked their hands into their pockets and started warping through the air with every step forward, the air scorched with flames wherever they once stood.

"_W-What?"_ Using speed to avoid attacks was nothing new to Mew. Hell, he employed that tactic quite often recently in the battles with Pluto and Gravitus. But what his foe was doing felt not only different, but familiar.

"Ghh...!" Mew grit his teeth and his head throbbed in tune with a vague image flashing in his brain. It showed a figure in a brown cloak with the same type of hair as his foe. They were standing in a volcanic landscape that was twisted by sulfuric acid and looked on the verge of collapsing.

But there was something very, very wrong with this flashback, _"I-I've never been to a place like that-"_

The Phoenix approached him directly with an even wider grin then usual and grabbed him by the neck. He slammed the back of his head against the wall and dragged him up, his position not changing even a little.

"N-Not this time!" Mew was stronger now. He wasn't going to be at his opponent's destructive "mercy" like before.

He grabbed the Phoenix by his shoulders and jerked his strength to the right, reversing their positions. Mew then waited for them to reach the apex of the building before diving his feet into their chest. The Phoenix went colliding through a couple power generators and the ventilation system before crashing over the edge of the building.

Mew pursued right away but couldn't find them on the other side. Their disappearance would be answered when they suddenly burst forth from the roof and ambushed him from behind. They wrestled one arm around Mew's neck then divebombed the side of the building.

Fire expanded out from the Phoenix's body and quickly set the building's innards aflame. Even with how fast they were declining, Mew could sniff out the scent of gasoline within. Gritting his teeth, he had to resort to desperate measures to get free, and fast!

He opened his mouth then clamped his teeth down on the skin of the Phoenix's wrist. They let go, not out of any sense of pain, but from the sheer surprise of it all. Mew quickly got behind his opponent and rapidly pummeled him in the head and chest to force him away from the building.

The Phoenix started laughing in the face of pain, his expression unflinching in the face of all these attacks, "That's more like it! Show us your wild side! Let it all loose!"

They threw one punch into Mew's chin, digging the knuckles in deep until the jaw could almost be heard snapping. Mew was launched diagonally through the building, where the Phoenix greeted him floating upside-down from above.

Flames gathered in their hands and a sphere was blasted point-blank into Mew's chest, dragging him rapidly towards the ground. Mew's eyes started wobbling as he plunged his fingertips into the scorching flames.

The moment he felt them this close, another image flashed in his head. The same scene, only a few moments forward, showed the cloaked figure's face, and it was a near-perfect match with his opponent's. The only discrepancy was in the eyes, which were a milder shade of brown from his hair.

A flood of confusion came over Mew's mind but he shook it off and thought, _"T-There's no time for that now! If I hit the ground, this fireball will level all the buildings in the city!"_

He squeezed his hands around the fireball. It was like trying to condense a miniature sun. Yet with the power of light at his behest, Mew had all the help he needed forcing the flames into a tightly wrapped orb of solid light.

He spun around to build up force. Briefly he could see the evacuation efforts unfolding down below. They were going as fast as they physically could, but there was so much distance to cover and nothing about their escape was unified. The fear on their faces did not need to be seen to be felt. This catastrophe would be anyone's worst nightmare...

Mew grit his teeth and finished spinning after a few seconds. He used the magnified speed to launch the flames back at his opponent faster than they would even be able to blink all while screaming, "You dropped this!"

The orb crashed into their body and delivered a hot, blinding flash to their eyes. Mew then landed on the ground and dug his feet in deep, hunched down like a predator on the prowl.

"_Time to push this form to its limits...!" _He left the ground without making a sound. All that noise would be saved for his opponent as he bashed his entire body into him in the form of a bolt of pure light energy.

He repeatedly came flying in, each blow staggering the Phoenix's stance and knocking him higher into the sky. Mew's body was moving faster than his mind could process. His cerebrum, getting stretched to its limits. If anyone could perceive what he was doing, they'd find that he was striking his opponent one hundred times a second.

After ten seconds of this Mew bashed his fist into the Phoenix's face and drew a drop of blood from his nose. He then stalled right in place and went for his sword. The remnants of light from his impacts was absorbed into the blade and Mew slashed out at the foe's chest with all his might, which turned his back to his opponent.

A scathing white scar was left across the Phoenix's chest. Mew slid his blade back into the sheath and stood up, waiting for the blood to spurt from the wound.

"I don't know who you are, but I'm not-"

"HAHAHAHAH!" The Phoenix's harrowing laughter shook the sky and left Mew's skin feeling cold and pale as he glanced over his shoulder.

Their shirt had received a minor cut and the skin underneath was burned. He swiveled his head around like it was on a pivot and cracked his arm and leg bones like he had merely suffered a sprain.

Mew turned around one slow step at a time and closed his eyes. His heart was racing but he tried to keep up a brave face as he said, "Ok scratch that..._What _are you?"

They laid one hand on the side of their face and chuckled incoherently from how much they seemed to be enjoying themselves. They then narrowly posited one eye towards Mew and coldly answered, "We are mankind's bane given flesh...Their finality! Born from an existence of irresponsibility and cruelty!"

Mew slowly drew his katana in one hand and pointed it at the boy's face. There was something about the way he spoke that made his stomach churn.

"You're not going to harm anyone else! This is between you and me!" He declared.

The Phoenix slid forth to appear directly in Mew's personal space. He leaned his head in within breathing range and let out some raspy laughter, "We are inevitable. We _cannot _be stopped. Least of all by some pathetic, worthless, _copy_."

Mew felt like his heart would sink like an anchor into his stomach. Again, a flash of the "past" burdened his mind, showing a planet inflicted by a worldwide storm. Lightning came crashing down, revealing Mew standing face-to-face with a terrifying scaly beast with no arms, legs or neck to its name.

Mew's free hand went to the side of his head the moment the image faded. His brain was on fire, not helped by the proximity of which his foe stood. They flashed a wide grin, and asked of Mew in the form of a pale whisper.

"Do you remember who we are now?"

"N-No!" Mew exclaimed as he slashed out his blade at the Phoenix's chest, only for them to dodge back. The sudden movement further strained his brain and caused him to stagger forward off-balance.

He grit his teeth angrily in the face of his foe's coy laughter. They waved one hand up from their pockets and dangled their pointer finger towards Mew's pain-stricken face.

"You **do **remember us. Maybe not all the way yet..." They quickly flipped their hand sideways and summoned an amber bladed scimitar with sharp protrusions similar to the way flames wave at the top, "But once you do, your angered screams will be music to our ears!"

He rushed in and slashed his sword in one quick stroke. Flames were dispersed in a large wave that dragged Mew back and scorched the nearest rooftops down to ash. Before Mew could fight back, the Phoenix came at him again with a heavy downward slash.

The flames unleashed were condensed and struck the ground like a lightning bolt. It burrowed a molten hole deep, deep within the Earth's surface that Mew was fortunate enough to catch himself on the edge of before he fell too deep.

He pulled himself up and heard the feather's of his wings molting off, their appearance a light, charred gray. He slowly caught his breath and reared his head back, drawing his katana in both hands. The Phoenix's visage was like a bright scarlet star, the haunting flames leaving the city-wide evacuees fraught with fear.

The immediate area was free of humans, and that's how it should be. The Phoenix expanded the flames around his body and the heat reached out towards the buildings, slowly melting them apart. This was merely the prelude for something much more apocalyptic in nature.

For from his flame wreathed form spawned dozens of scarlet meteorites that tore their way through the buildings and towards Mew. All the while, the maddened warrior declared in triumph, "YOU CAN'T SAVE THEM ALL!"

Mew's heart let out a hard, gut-wrenching "Thump!" and he took to action almost immediately. He flew straight towards the Phoenix and held his hands up, crafting a broad stretching umbrella of solid light to catch as many meteors as he could without breaking through the buildings.

The meteors quickly broke down the barrier's strength on Mew's approach to his foe. This terrifying storm of hellfire had its conclusion though. One final meteor, bigger and stronger than the rest, would be the crescendo of the Phoenix's assault.

And so what would be a more fitting finale, than for the maestro to take center stage himself, and be the subject of the fearful folks' gazing eyes?

He took all the flames he had gathered and charged straight down into Mew's barrier. The simple touch of his knuckles alone smashed what remained of it. The rest of his body plowed into Mew's, both his fists burning straight through his armor and scorching hot fire across his chest.

Mew's scream of pain expunged smoke at the very end of their descent, where the Phoenix crash landed in the middle of the now vacant roadways. Everything went all topsy-turvy. Cars were sent flying and exploding all over the place. Large chunks of concrete were slingshot through the windows. A large wave of fire rippled throughout miles of the city. Mew could feel the hundreds of lives being lost at the edge of the flames, cruelly done in mere seconds before they would have been free.

Mew's irises turned yellow for a brief moment and, regardless of the fact that he was burrowed under six feet of hot stone and rebar, he threw a punch into the Phoenix's face with all his strength. The Phoenix was shoved off, and Mew began to rise.

He threw a mean left hook into their jugular and it scraped the skin off his knuckles. He then tossed a right hook into the side of their face and subtly felt their cheekbone break. But this did not dissuade their smile, which grew with every iota of pain inflicted upon his body.

"That's it...that's it!" The Phoenix cheered and lashed his hands forward, blasting Mew with a powerful cone of fire. He lashed his hands out twice more, the flames growing stronger and scorching the debris and surface until it was a sleek, white hot mess.

Mew crossed his arms before his chest as some vain attempt to prove that those attacks left little impact, but it was just false bravado at this point. As the flames subsided his body was smoldering from head-to-toe and the heat was leaving him drowning in his own sweat.

He could barely breathe through this suffocating air, but it was not made to last. Yet even as these hellish waves of heat subsided, the devil stood atop a sharp, rocky pedestal of his own creation and glared down Mew with his dark, scarlet eyes.

"Your rage is wonderful...And so, _so _familiar," The Phoenix slumped his arms by his hips and leaned his head back with a tantalizing grin, _"Do you remember us __now_?"

Mew dropped onto one knee and another memory popped into his head. But before he could get a could glimpse at it, it was quickly shrouded by a dark fog. A chilling laugh crept through his mind. As if the situation wasn't bad enough, now Mew had to deal with _him_.

"_Hehehehe, would you reeeeally like to remember?" _The demon "D." taunted Mew with his sickeningly sweet facade.

"Not...in the mood for this!" Mew growled defiantly. The demon then casually pulled a glistening orb free from the swampy depths of Mew's subconscious and dangled it around like a plaything.

"_I've been waiting a long, long time to find use for this. I'm not usually fond of such...direct approaches to breaking minds. But for you, in your most vulnerable moment..." _The demon's fanged teeth creaked and stretched to their limits, _"It shall be my most __**sinful **__pleasure!"_

Faster than Mew's heart could give a beat, the demon crushed the metaphysical orb inside of his gangly, ethereal claw. Its contents, strung about throughout Mew's mind as a web of memories that had been long since buried.

Mew's head lurched up without a gasp or a word, his body stiffened in place like a statue as the visions overwhelmed all his senses. He recalled a trip to another world, the home of the famous plumber hero Mario. There was an encounter with an alien from another world who wielded control over reality. A game was played out of an intrigue towards what an Elemental Overlord could do.

Mew was the lone player. The world was the battleground. The famous heroes of the Mushroom Kingdom were made into the alien's puppets, and guarded the bastions of his then drained powers. Mew fought to the tooth-and-nail to rescue everyone from the alien's control, culminating in a deadly battle atop the Overlord's secret temple.

It was battle that should have left a lasting impact until the day Mew died, and yet he didn't recall it until now. "Why?" Was all he could ask himself, with an answer soon to come that would be the connective thread between past and present mysteries.

The face of the Phoenix of Destruction and the face of the boy from the past were one in the same. That person had acted in secret in the shadows, guiding Mew along when it seemed that no one else could save him. Yet when everything was over, and Mew offered this person a chance to return to his friends...They took their hand to his face, and must have sealed the memories of these events deep within his mind.

But now that all this had come rushing back to him, there was a name that Mew could attach to this person. This "Phoenix of Destruction" persona was a bitter, far cry from the scared, damaged wreck of a person Mew had gotten familiar with three years ago...

As the flood of memories came to a sudden end, Mew's body hunched over and he rapidly breathed in and out. The Phoenix of Destruction lauded his presence over the humbled boy and stretched his hands up beside his face with a delighted grin.

All the while the demon took sadistic glee in the agony that Mew was going through. His brain was throbbing, his vision going dark and foggy.

"_So much anger...So much confusion! Yes...Yessssssss!" _

It looked as though Mew was about to lose himself to his emotions. The demon would wrench control over his weakened mind, and the clash between death and the destroyer would be an apocalypse of whom there'd be no survivors to tell the tale.

But that is only a possibility. And one that would thankfully never come to pass. Instead, Mew slowly raised his head and gripped his throbbing head. His vision blurry, he nevertheless could make out his foe's appearance on the rock.

With the quiet, palpable expression of confusion, Mew softly spoke to this person on more familiar terms, "A-Alex?"

The Phoenix of Destruction curled his lips slightly into a scowl but quickly went back to smiling, "You **do **remember us. Its about damn time..."

Winds briskly passed through the city and agitated the lingering embers. Their crackles drew Mew's gaze clockwise towards all the destruction inflicted upon the city. They were standing in the middle of a land now wasted in pure fire and brimstone, with the metallic frames of the buildings caulked by ash.

Mew stood up fully and said to the Phoenix, "Why...Why are you doing this?"

They jostled one hand free from their pockets and lashed it out towards the charred landscape, "Why do we need to give you a reason? Did humanity spare even an ounce of reason when they found the ultimate energy source and converted it into a weapon of mass destruction? Is it logic that guides the actions of those who turn their guns on their fellow man and slaughter them like animals?"

He plopped his hand back down to his hip and remarked, "I told you. I am the culmination of this rotten world's inability to change. Their greatest weapon, but soon to be their most costly mistake. The boy you knew as 'Alex Whiter' finally gave up not too long ago. All that's left is us...The Phoenix of Destruction."

There were so many memories to decipher and no breathing room to deal with them right now. But by focusing on just Alex himself, Mew remembered how he last saw him.

"_You were never the nicest person Alex. But I was cloned from you, so even when you yelled at me, lashed out, and were stubborn to a fault...I chose to believe in the kindest buried beneath your rough exterior," _Mew took in a deep breath. Charred flesh was being carried through the air, sickening him to the bone, _"But this? This is not you..."_

Mew pulled his hand away from his face and curled it into a fist by his hip. He looked Alex straight in the eyes and firmly asked him, "What happened to you?"

"You don't have it in you to force that truth out of us, you worthless replica. And...I doubt you'd be able to handle it anyways." Alex reared his head back with an ugly sneer.

"_Hehehehe! And to think I almost could have had that broken boy's body for myself...Oh the carnage we'd have wrought..." _"D." lamented with an untimely sigh, _"But there is only room for one death dealer in this universe. So do me a favor boy, and finally let loose all that anger I know you've been holding in...!"_

"_...No." _Mew firmly retorted, causing the demon to unfurl an infuriated scowl.

"_No? No?!"_ The demon's admittedly limited patience ran dry at that moment, _"This arrogant wretch sealed your memories and has assaulted your world! THIS IS WHERE YOU GET ANGRY!"_

"_Don't get me wrong. No matter what happens I can't overlook what Alex has done, but..." _Mew briefly closed his eyes but getting more blunt towards the demon, _"Look, do I HAVE to remind you that you're the one stuck here? So if you don't start cooperating we're both setting foot in an early grave."_

"_...I have hated every. Waking. Moment with you." _

The demon willingly pushed his power into Mew's body, and the boy cracked a grin and chuckled, _"Yeah likewise 'buddy'."_

Pitch black darkness started to surround Mew's body. His angelic wings molted down to the bone, and the holy garb was shed off to reveal his original set of clothes.

"I won't let you do this Alex." Mew said in a gravelly voice. The burns on his skin healed up, with his hands and legs becoming coated in a thin black goop.

Alex reared his head back and said in a mocking tone, "Do what? Kill all the humans?"

"Billions of lives don't deserve to be punished for what one man did to you."

"You're right. They don't. Its their entire existence that has proven them unworthy of the life they've been given," Alex clawed his hands up before his chest and grit his teeth in a bitter scowl, "Humanity is stubborn. They are cockroaches with bones and flesh. All the inspiration they've been given and they use it to dominate the weak and kill the useless..."

"Empires! Democracies! Theocracies! Tyranny! Racism! Fascism! War! Famine! Illness and disease! Guns! Bombs! Nukes! THAT is the legacy these mongrels have left behind! Even after thousands of years have gone they will look at the mistakes of the past and never learn from them!"

Alex pressed his fingertips upon his chest and scraped down the sides of his shirt, "And are we not living proof of that?!"

"No we're not!" Mew proclaimed as his irises were enveloped in a vein-y yellow, the bones left behind from his wings becoming stitched up by thin red sinew, "And I'll keep saying it until it gets through your thick skull! You're not going to make innocents pay for the mistakes of the guilty!"

"Oh you seem to have misinterpreted our intentions, my most naive replica..." Alex grinned from ear-to-ear and his eyes glistened with a devilish tint, "We only mentioned humanity because we know how much you _love _those rotten flesh mites..."

"We plan to kill _everything_."

Mew stood there with his mouth agape as he uttered a quiet, "W-What?"

"In the end what makes all those others races so different from humanity? There is no such thing as a perfect world and to think so is the ultimate deception in this masterfully crafted deceit of a universe. Its time for this universe to stop living a lie, and return to the ash from whence it came."

Alex's hands dropped to his pockets and he sneered at Mew with a grimy smile, "We will burn everyone and everything until there is nothing left. Do you honestly think you can stand before the apocalypse with your boundless, fruitless optimism, and convince it that everyone is worth saving?"

"...I can't." As Mew's dark transformation came to an end he closed his eyes and hung his head. His outlook of defeat was feigned, for he widened his eyes wide open with a spark of determination and raised his fists before his chest.

"There's only one person I need to save – and that's you."

For the first time since their reunion Alex paused and slowly widened his eyes in utter shock. He then cruelly grit his teeth in a smile and replied, "You always were too stubborn for your own good."

Mew cracked a hearty smile and snapped back, "What can I say? I came from the most stubborn asshole I know."

"A decision we've always regretted...But now we shall finally rectify-"

"Shut up ok?" Mew firmly put his right foot forward and hunched towards Alex, "You may be wearing Alex's body, but you aren't him. All this talk about destroying the universe? Making humanity pay? The Alex I know would never act like this."

Dark flames wreathed Mew's body at full force, pushing Alex off the narrow edge of his perch. Alex floated forward, suspended by the crimson flames that embodied his everlasting malice. With his grin widening to its limit, the "Phoenix of Destruction" lauded his clone with a harrowing truth.

"Things change in three years time..."

"Yeah, they do..." Mew squeezed his fists taut, "So first I'm going to beat a history lesson out of your skull, and then knock you back to your senses. So you better come at me with everything you've got Alex, cause I ain't holding back!"

Mew's eyes lit up with a feral gleam as he bathed in the shadows of the rising smoke and whispered, "We would be disappointed if you did."

_Next Time: To Face the Pain_


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: The Mirror of Betrayal**

On the far outskirts of the city, hundreds of thousands of people have evacuated Seattle, abandoning their cars to the fires spreading out from the battleground.

Over the past few minutes Kairi has used her powers to create platform of aura capable of ferrying hundreds of people at a time. It was stressful to listen in as everyone before and below her panicked for dear life. In a way this reminded her of what everyone in Sancturia must've experienced when Gravitus unleashed his power.

Except now the threat was more familiar, and that made it scarier. Between worrying about Mew fighting this new adversary and saving the people, Kairi found time passing in the blink of an eye.

She dropped off one last batch of people on the rapidly filling hillsides and then quickly turned around to face the city. The once towering skyscrapers were now burning pyres of red and black, their materials exhausted for smoke that rose towards the clouds.

The fact that the skies were still somewhat clear and sunny provided a disturbing, discordant sight for all who had the courage to watch. No one would forget this day. Not even when they died.

Kairi clutched a fist before her chest and tossed the cloth hood off her head. "That should be everyone..." She told herself, trying to remain optimistic.

But it wasn't possible to have saved everyone. The fires had spread too strongly too fast. Kairi shook her head trying to dispel the images of the charred skeletons she saw in the Space Needle's wreckage, an effort aided by a growing pulse of power within the center of the city.

"This is..." The power was darkness incarnate, its presence here a bad omen of things to come, "Mew's...having to resort to that already?"

With his control over darkness, Mew made an utter fool out of Gravitus at the peak of his power. This battle had already set the whole city ablaze before escalating to this point.

"_If Mew's having that much trouble..." _Kairi closed her eyes for a moment to take a deep breath and calm down her fluttering heartbeat. She then flared her eyes open and flew straight for the city, her arms flung back behind her.

"Hold on Mew! I'm coming!" She proclaimed as she dared the raging inferno.

_Meanwhile..._

Alex rushed off his rocky perch towards Mew. Mew threw his right punch as he threw his left. Their clash of fists smashed a crater through the rocks beside them. They then swung their other fists together and caved through the bottom corner of a nearby building.

Alex widened his eyes and giggled with utter glee, then opened his hands to grab Mew's fists and push him forward. Stones rose from the ground as their clash of wills created a growing bubble of air pressure.

Mew firmly held his ground and darted his eyes around. The stones were being shaved down to make them sharper, and their points aimed towards Mew's head.

The moment the stones went flying Mew dropped back and pulled Alex down with him. He opened a dark rift, slipped through, timing it to the second so Alex wouldn't follow. The stones dug into Alex's back, dissolving to heal the wounds as he hunched upright.

Mew zipped out of a rift behind Alex and kicked him in the back. Alex spun around and lashed a gigantic wave of flame from his hand. Mew narrowly swung under the strike and punched Alex in the chin. The position he was in weakened the punch.

The flames cleaved a large gash through a couple buildings. The upper halves went crashing down, demolishing years of hard work in an instance. Mew grunted, the only saving grace of this destruction being that there was no longer anyone in the crossfire.

The building's collapse spread a massive wave of dirt and dust over the inflamed battleground. In that moment Alex slipped away, fading like his laughter. Mew kept his eyes wide-open for the slightest hint of Alex's power in use.

It was so wild and powerful that any attempt at stealth would be an utter joke at best. Mew yelled out to his foe, "I hope you're not planning on hiding Alex!"

Alex's answer lied in the form of a resounding kick to the back of Mew's neck. Mew almost toppled forward onto his face but landed on his palms in the nick of time. He then raised his legs and tried to grab Alex, but he had already vanished.

He got on all fours and hunched down like a lion on the prowl, _"Alright Alex. What trick are you pulling this time?" _

The memories of the past were still as dusty as the environment. There wasn't too much to rely on, as he never saw Alex fight. But if there was any safe bet to make...

"_What would __**I **__do in this situation?" _Alex had already attacked him from behind. So now he'd attack him...

"_From the side!" _50-50 odds and Mew's intuition happened to get the correct result first try. He turned left and Alex suddenly was inches from kicking him in the face. He pulled his head right then thrust his left arm between Alex's legs to grab his stomach and pile drive him into the ground.

He made certain to hit hard and fast to push the cloud of dust away. Alex kicked the flames around his body into overdrive, burning away at the darkness surrounding Mew's arm. Mew grit his teeth, doubled down on the darkness, and growled at Alex.

"My turn..." Mew looked at the building straight ahead and barreled right towards it, dragging Alex through the rubble. Not even hundreds of pounds of concrete to the head could shut him up.

"Is this the best you've got, replica?!" Alex threw his hands up and tightly dug his fingernails through the darkness and into Mew's skin.

"Not! Even!" Before they reached the building Mew casually tossed Alex over his head and started bashing him into the ground all-around him. And yet even still, the stubborn bastard held on like some demonic crab.

For the final swing Mew threw Alex straight into the side of the building, smashing him against a still stable steel beam, a description that would prove just as fleeting as the look of pain on Alex's face.

Mew pounded Alex in the gut and the shockwave smashed the bent steel beam apart. He then pile-drove both his fists into his chin and sent him hurtling up through the entire building side in seconds.

Mew then dove into a rift to catch right up with Alex before he tried anything funny. But that's the scary thing about insanity. It does a good job of dulling the pain.

Alex instantly widened his eyes and thrust his arms out the moment he passed the rooftop. He took all the broken bits of glass and metal below him and commanded it to fly straight towards him. As Mew emerged from the rift behind him, he saw what was happening and assumed Alex planned to heal up.

But then both the Phoenix's hands went towards his pockets, and he disappeared in the blink of an eye. Mew could perceive a distortion of time and space, throwing him for a ride. And from there the glass and metal shards easily made their mark across his body.

Even at this level of battle a thousand paper cuts is still cause for a grunt of pain or two. But Mew then quickly spun around a few times, deflecting the remainder of them. On the last length of his spin, Mew saw Alex hovering over him, struggling to contain an orb of flame the size of his head between his hands.

"Got you!" Alex hissed with glee as the enraged flames spiraled out of control from within the orb.

Mew crossed his arms for defense and summoned a few dark phantom limbs to pound away at the cusp of the beam with a frenzied flurry of blows. As it appeared he was making progress, Alex applied more pressure by thrusting his hands all the way out and doubling the size of the beam.

Mew hastily summoned more limbs and refused to back away. He closed his eyes and concentrated deep on the power within, reminding himself of what's at stake, _"I can't give an inch! Alex's got enough power to cause irreversible damage to the entire planet!"_

Mew squinted to the left and got an idea. He mustered up a lot of his strength entirely within his arms as he crash landed on the ground. His kneecaps cobbled under pressure for a bit as the ground started breaking apart, and molten magma spat out from beneath.

"Go go go!" Mew stretched his arms out and grabbed the sides of the beam. He pushed hard as he could to the left while opening up a dark rift large enough to hold this thing. With every last bit of strain burning his brain like a computer on overload, Mew lost track of his surroundings until the beam escaped his grasp and fired forth into the rift, its direction diverted.

From there snapping his fingers and redirecting the beam into Alex's face was a pleasant walk in the park. The Phoenix of Destruction took the beam head-on, with Mew filling in the blanks by imagining him wide-eyed with surprise.

Mew then followed the beam's destructive path through the rift. On the other side, Alex had already started absorbing the flames into his body. This was ended with a harrowing blow to his skull that sent him hurtling out of the sky and towards the bayside.

His body made a hard series of bounces like a skipping stone but stopped just short of making it to the other side. Mew grimaced and quickly thought to himself, _"Ok that might not have been a good idea-"_

A fiery eruption of smoldering trees and dirt hundreds of feet tall tore aside the land over there for a good half a mile around. The upside was that that side of the state was relatively unoccupied. The downside being that Mew quickly lost track of where Alex was right after.

He dove towards the waters, assuming his foe was hauling ass over the surface and the ripples just hadn't quite caught up. But the surface was docile, relatively speaking, and that left Mew feeling a mild sense of paranoia.

"_How does he keep doing that?!" _Mew wracked his mind for answers as he swerved his head around, where he suddenly found Alex standing right behind him.

Mew's heart threatened to jump out of his chest until Alex pressed his hand around his mouth and bashed his skull into the hard pavement. Alex knelt down and repeatedly hammered Mew's head in deeper, the utter savagery of this act leaving "D." feeling a little envious.

Mew's brain was rattled, dulling his sense of hearing and sight. He could feel lots of blood leaving through his nose, and what sounded like the back of his skull cracking opening. Eventually the sea waters started flooding in, making it hard to breathe.

Mew closed his eyes and mouth and made a last-second call to throw his legs up and twisted them around Alex's waist. He didn't really know what the hell he was doing now, but there was no point in complaining about it when his life was on the line.

He pushed his arms out of this relentless beating and successfully wrapped them around Alex's neck. He was so lucid from this pain and pleasure that it took him a second to register that Mew was even fighting back. Mew caught a glimpse of his shock and this sparked enough energy for him to break his self-preservation and smirk.

He then flipped Alex over so that he was on the bottom. While catching his breath Mew wound up a punch with his arm stretched ten feet back and then hammered it down onto Alex's head. He got plenty of blood from the first blow, but that was a mortal wound that wasn't meant to last.

Alex was a natural bred berserker. He sucked in the deep sea waters through his skin to heal any damage Mew was pounding into him and just kept laughing, laughing, laughing. His levels of aggression were also far beyond any foe Mew had faced before now.

When he had dried the pool enough Alex threw Mew off by letting off an explosion of raw chaotic flames. Mew didn't let himself get pushed back more than a few inches and swung his hands out to grab Alex by the shoulders and pull him in.

Alex's face shone with a mad grin as he slammed his bare red knuckles right across Mew's left cheek. The shockwave from the blow decimated the row of small buildings behind them and nearly dislodged Mew's jaw from its socket.

Mew staggered back, letting go despite his best intentions. Alex then pounded his fists against the empty air and struck him with a series of large, highly combustible fireballs. The explosions tore apart even more of their surroundings, and as Alex walked through the smoldering ashes of his world his head was held high and the delight on his face was palpable.

"You try so hard to defend this world. And for what? What has humanity ever done for you?!" Alex clapped his hands down around Mew's head and pounded his eardrums with compressed blasts of air.

Through the agonizing ringing assaulting his brain, Mew grit his teeth and grabbed Alex by his face. At point-blank he blasted him with darkness three times in growing strength all while dragging his body to the ground. He then spun around and threw Alex through a few skyscrapers, bringing them closer to the center of the city.

Alex didn't require sight to plague Mew. With a mere snap of his fingers Alex set the ground ablaze where he stood and towering explosions soon followed. Alex reared his head back and his laughter filled the skies.

Mew ripped his way through the darkness and got behind Alex, the scent of smoke from his body giving his presence away. Alex leaned his head all the way back and widened his eyes with an excited grunt before tucking his hands into his pockets and vanishing from sight.

He left for but a nanosecond, reappearing above Mew upside-down mid-flip to deliver a kick to the back of his head. Mew spun around and lashed his arms towards the nearest desecrated building, latching on to a beam and using it as a means to slingshot around it and rocket back towards Alex.

Alex threw his arms up and surrounding himself in a sphere of fire, which sufficed in stopping Mew's straightforward punch. The flames grew hotter and melt down the darkness protecting Mew's hands. But if there was any fire greater than his, it was the one burning bright in Mew's heart.

He went from glaring Alex down to rising above him, his other fist vigorously shining black with darkness. He brought his fist pounding down onto the sphere before Alex's face and the darkness rippled throughout, tearing the flames to ribbons.

He then swung his hands back and dragged the lingering embers between his palms, turning them as pitch black as the smoke in the sky.

"Its not about what humanity's done for me! I've never thought that selfishly about it!" He thrust his hands forward and pounding Alex across the body with a dark fireball. Alex took it head-on. A big mistake. The black flames lingered, burning into his skin, and distracting him for Mew's next assault both physically and verbally.

Mew punched Alex square in the jaw and dragged them both into the side of a building. Their collision bent the upper half back, where in its weakened state it snapped off and knocked down a couple smaller towers like dominos.

"I believe in what humanity's capable of! Even you have to admit they've done much more good for the world than they have bad!"

Alex grit his teeth in a scowl and dragged himself free from the pressure of Mew's fist through sheer force of will. His eyes inflamed with searing red, he threw Mew off with a blast of raw flame from his body and staggered forth like a rickety marionette.

"And what is the cost of their achievements?! Electricity inspired technology, which in turn created those toxin spewing cars and planes and along with faster means of harvesting resources from the planet! They've set themselves on the course of annihilation all for the sake of allowing themselves a few more precious seconds of self-indulgent luxury!"

Alex drew his sword in his left hand and sliced up towards Mew's face. He dodged out of the way and kicked Alex hard in the hip. Alex threw his free hand down, grabbed Mew by the ankles, then swung him back into the building.

Mew bounced off it only for Alex to try and impale him through the gut. Mew hastily slashed his right claw up to deflect the blade, then crossed his other arm past it to grab Alex by the neck.

"We make mistakes and learn from them! That's what makes us human!" Mew threw Alex over his head into the building then pulled himself above him. He drove both his feet down into Alex's head, grinding him down the side of the building until they neared the ground.

Alex then set loose a raging inferno, throwing Mew higher up until he spread his demonic wings to stall in place. Mew then spun his head around and saw that Alex had vanished...again.

Shattering glass from behind was an alert too little too late. Alex's gloved hand clawed out into view then grappled Mew around his neck, pulling him in dangerously close.

Alex hung his head over Mew's head and slowly choked the life out of him. Alex then spoke a deathly whisper into his ear, "Strip away what makes humanity unique and what are you left with? A bunch of savage, bloodthirsty beasts!"

Mew stretched his arms back and coiled them under and around Alex's shoulders. He first got him off his neck then flung him overhead towards the ground. He quickly dove straight at him before he could recover and drove both his fists into his gut, slamming him through a couple tons worth of broken up roadway.

"That doesn't give you or anyone else the right to slaughter them like animals! Are you even listening to yourself speak Alex?!"

Alex blistered the skin right off his palms by slamming them against the ground. He then wildly flung his feet into Mew's stomach to knock him off. After absorbing bits of the environment to heal his hands Alex jumped and pounded both his fists into Mew's back. A large shockwave then cut through whatever buildings happened to still stand.

With Mew down on the ground Alex happily pressed his feet down onto his back as hard as he could, all without looking directly at him. Alex alternated what foot smashed down while looking up at the sky with a lucid look in his eye. With a single whiff he enjoyed the scent of burning that permanently dirtied the atmosphere.

"The same could be said of you, you worthless replica...You scream and yell in humanity's defense yet all you offer is the same tired dribble we've heard time and time and irritating time again!"

Mew dug his hands into the ground and pushed Alex up. The Phoenix hopped right off and Mew attacked him with an extended, backhanded punch. Alex tucked one hand in his pockets and blocked the punch with his wrist, flashing a grin as wide as his face.

"And I'll keep saying it time and time and time again! It doesn't matter what you think! I choose to believe in humanity!" Mew said with his eyes firmly set upon Alex's face.

Alex squeezed Mew's blackened wrist and narrowed his gaze, "Your feelings are as fake as your life. These words of yours are just the remnants of the optimism we cast aside long ago."

With a short, malicious smirk, Alex bore down his clone's spirits with a gaze of crimson red, "And the only reason you can't admit that is because deep down you know that all it'd take is one bad day...For you to end up _just like me_."

Mew softened up and his eyes and mouth widened. His heartbeat slowed to a crawl, depriving him of most of his strength. And in that fleeting moment of weakness, Alex pulled him right in and clocked him in the neck with his arm.

Mew choked, lost his breath, upon which Alex suddenly dropped from the sky and hammered his feet into Mew's stomach. Alex wiggled one foot around as he stepped off and held his palm down towards his body.

"Now as fun as this has been, its time for you to do the one thing you're worth for...And get...ANGRY!" Alex's hand exploded with bright flames dead set on incinerating Mew down to ash.

He was hyperfocused on Mew and was thus entirely unaware of a certain bo-staff flying at his face until it dented his nose and sent him hurtling through yards of debris.

Mew stiffly raised his head and watched as Kairi gracefully planted her feet on the ground in front of him and swung her elongated weapon behind her back. She then looked over her shoulder, panting faintly for air, and exclaimed in concern, "Are you ok Mew?!"

Mew pressed his palms against the ground to prop himself back up and shook some of the pain out of his head, "I'm fine, what about you? How'd the evacuation go?"

Kairi looked at the ground for a brief moment then steadied her gaze straight ahead and said, "L-Lets just stop this bastard before he can cause anymore trouble!"

"Kairi..." Mew sighed while rubbing the back of his head, "I'm reeeeally glad you want to help but-"

Alex suddenly burst forth from the rubble and lunged himself closer towards the two of them. He was hunched over, his chin soaked in blood from his nose. He gasped and gagged angrily, hunched over like a gargoyle as he angrily hissed.

"Who...do you think you are?!" He screamed, focusing entirely on Kairi with blood red eyes.

He stood back upright as the environment fed him the energy to continue. Kairi trembled, wondering aloud to Mew, "W-What is he?"

"He's calling himself the Phoenix of Destruction..." Mew hung his head and awkwardly mumbled, "Buuuut he's actually my original self, Alex Whiter."

Kairi swung her head back and hollered out a wide-eyed, "W-WHAT?!"

Mew smiled, threw his hands up by his face and proclaimed, "Surprise Kairi! I'm a clone!"

"...What did you just say?" Alex suddenly muttered, his tone becoming frailly docile.

He staggered forward a bit with a limp looking body and glared his beady eyes at Kairi's face. Ignorant to her discomfort, his teeth creaked with a grin as laughter ruptured forth from his lungs.

"Hahahahahaha! Yes! Yes! We do see the resemblance! Those cushy cheeks...Those flowing locks of hair...That shapely body..." Alex leered his head back and whispered dully in anger as his eyes turned dark red, "You're that traitorous _bitch's_ little sister...aren't you?"

Kairi froze in place and started trembling uncontrollably. Alex appeared right in front of her in the blink of an eye and squeezed his right hand around her head, all while whispering in her ear a single, horrifying word.

"**Die**."

Mew leaped over Kairi and pounded Alex in the head with one loud thunderous punch. He was quickly buried two miles underground, with Kairi leaping back out of the way in shock. Mew landed in front of her, turned to his side, and told her casually, "So as I was saying..."

He put a hand on her still shaking shoulder, which seemed to calm her down a bit, then expressed in a more straightforward tone than he usually cared to take, "I appreciate the help, but this is my fight. Not yours."

"But Mew! T-That guy...whoever he is, he-"

"He's not going to be a problem," Mew interrupted, missing the point entirely, "But Auris would kill me if anything happened to you."

Kairi stared wide-eyed at him but then her eyelids sank whilst she remarked, "...You're doing that lying thing again."

Mew stayed silent as Kairi swung her head up and proclaimed, "You know I can help! You're just stubborn about fighting this all by yourself!"

Mew shut his eyes slowly and remarked, "...Yeah, you're right. Nothing gets past you when it comes to me anymore does it?"

With a big old smile he winked at her, which also caused a dark rift to open behind her. Before she could respond to its presence Mew had already gently shoved her through and closed it.

"That should keep her out of the way for a while..." Mew closed his eyes and let out a big sigh, "Geez, so much for our first date."

"_Oh don't worry, foolish replica..." _Alex's voice echoed from down below. Mew wisely got out of the way as Alex burst forth out of the ground, a tower of flames and stone scorching its way towards the stratosphere with him at its center.

Alex tightly squeezed his fists together by his hips and proclaimed, "Because you and everyone else in this miserable universe will soon have a date with the afterlife!"

Mew swiped a hand beneath his nose and chuckled, "Hey! Glad to see your edgy phase isn't dulling your sense of humor Alex!"

"What's a real laugh is that you seem to have found your own traitorous muse. How long has that wench had you under her spell, I wonder?"

Mew rolled his eyes, threw his arms up and proclaimed, "Man I don't know what the hell you're talking about!"

He then flicked the side of his head and followed-up with, "Did I hit you THAT hard on the head?!"

"Hmph, no matter..." Alex lowered the intensity of the flames a bit and landed on the ground at eye level with Mew. He tilted his head slightly with a smirk, chuckling deeply to himself.

"You'll never get to see her true colors..." He started reaching for his pockets, "Its time I stopped playing around..."

Mew widened his eyes and something about that word, "time", drew out the memory of a black and gold stone from his mind.

"_Time...time..." _A stone, that as a matter of fact, he used at one point, _"The Time Stone!" _

He glared down at Alex's right-hand pocket and then threw one of his demonic claws through a rift connected to the pocket. The moment Alex grabbed the stone, Mew's fingers wrapped around it too.

"Not this time Alex!" He proclaimed as the stone released a faint glow. The next second, the two watched as all the colors was flushed away from the scenery, signifying that time has frozen completely.

Alex flared his nostrils and ripped the stone free from Mew's grasp. Once Mew retracted his hand he screamed as though he had been personally violated, "This is OURS! You will NOT steal it from us again!"

His anger blinded him. Mew happily ran forward and slammed his fist into Alex's face. He dug his knuckles in deep until Alex was thrown off his feet. Mew's eyes remained open at all times, devoid of even the slightest pause.

"_Got to strike hard and strike fast! While time's frozen Alex shouldn't be able to heal himself!" _

Alex started to resist and bore his teeth down. Mew took a swift slash at his chest with his claws. The slightest hint of pain seemed to agitate Alex enough to lower his concentration, freeing Mew up to pound away at him a few more times.

He was pushing him towards the closest building. He had plenty of time to whip his arms around in broad strokes, lashing his darkness into Alex's body like a pair of steel fiber ropes.

"I have no doubt that I could've wound up like you Alex..." Mew spoke softly as he squeezed his fists taut and turned the darkness around them into thick, spiked clubs to bash Alex atop his head.

Alex held his ground, but it caved in in seconds. Blood dripped out of his skull and down his head, covering his eyes. Mew turned his hands back to normal and proclaimed, "But I'm here now! And I am still me! And as long as I am who I am...!"

Mew threw his fists back, grit his teeth, and spread the darkness out from within to summon dozens of other fists to his aid, "I will never turn against the people I've sworn to protect!"

Alex's back was rammed into the side of a steel beam. The frozen time kept it incapable of breaking, and thus put him entirely at Mew's mercy. Mew threw hundreds of punches a second across Alex's body, battering him into a bloody pulp because he knew that he could take it. He never moved out of place, and never lost sight of who he was or what he was doing.

Alex struggled against Mew's might to reach down into his pocket and tap the time-manipulating stone. Mew released the pressure off of his opponent as time resumed. The force of all his punches tore a path of destruction through the bottom of the building and all the way out to the bay.

Mew hopped back and the entire building collapsed on top of Alex, throwing up a heavy plume of dust. Mew swiped his arm out as hard as he could to dispel the dust and then squinted at the hefty pile of debris. To his shock, Alex didn't escape that.

However, it didn't take long for the debris to be start getting pushed aside like it was a small hill of pebbles. Alex threw his body out and landed on his hands and knees. There was a lot of blood coming out of him, with Mew even believing that he might have overdone it...Were it anyone else but Alex Whiter.

Alex's upper body suddenly sprung back with his blood-soaked face aimed at the sky and his arms limp by his hips. He cackled very loudly, the blood in his throat doing little to slow him down.

Mew cautiously raised his fists towards Alex and proclaimed, "Stand down Alex! You're in no condition to fight!"

Alex kept laughing for another half-minute before throwing his head forward and breathing in heavily. His unnatural, heaving breaths were foreboding and enough to keep Mew at bay. The boy then gazed at Mew with his bloody eyes, his hands rising towards his stomach.

"This doesn't hurt us...You..._can't_...hurt **us**!" He cobbled upright, his arms swaying like pendulums before his chest. He started dragging in the elements around himself to heal, undoing all of Mew's hard work.

"_God this is ridiculous...! Is there nothing I can do to keep him down?!" _Mew, for all his clever tricks, was really at a loss of ideas for this problem.

Fiery bird-like wings exploded from Alex's back and bathed his body in shadow as they stretched out to cover an expanse of a couple dozen yards. Alex then thrust his body upright and summoned claws of flames around his hand.

"But we...CAN HURT YOU!"

Mew stood on the defensive only for Alex to rocket straight towards the sky. Leaving the city's perimeter in seconds, Alex's crimson effigy spread fear across the state for miles around as he entered the troposphere, then the stratosphere, and onward to the mesosphere.

"...Oh my god..." Mew slowly widened his eyes in a panic and tried to fire off the ground after him. The debris hastily churned like a discordant pit of garbage, tossing and turning Mew off his feet and throwing him around like a rag doll.

Those few dreaded seconds of god-like power on display was all Alex needed to escape the planet's atmosphere and tear his way through a few satellites. In the depths of space his fire was replaced with air to allow him to breathe.

He then slammed his palms together, poising his burning hands straight down towards Seattle, which was little more than a microscopic speck of dust this high up. A raging inferno of hellfire consumed Alex's body from head-to-toe and concentrated upon his hands. A gigantic six-sided glyph appeared before his body, followed by two smaller four-pointed glyphs before that.

"Fight back with all of your anger and hatred replica...!" Alex's fire expanding massively in seconds, growing larger than his body yet still having plenty of room to increase in size.

"For if you don't...Then you will share with us the pain of losing everything!"

_Next Time: The Third Encountered_


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: Destruction, Balance and Rebirth**

_As the battle for the fate of the Earth went down, events were unfolding far, far away that, unbeknownst to all involved, had a deep connection to what was happening._

_This a world that hasn't been seen in quite some time by your watchful eyes. At least, not from this perspective. A land of wonders galore, inhabited by mostly fungi headed people. Their is a certain red and blue plumber with a stylish mustache and spectacular jump._

_But though this is his world, he has no role to play in this story today._

_Instead we go to a small laboratory in the middle of the humble Toad Town, which is owned by the eccentric, elderly E. Gadd. That short old man, recognized by his swirly glasses and whipped cream like hair, was currently in the middle of a serious excavation of the old Elemental Overlord's Genesis Temple._

_That place was an important discovery for the Professor, perhaps the most important in his life!_

_But seeing how it fell to ruin not long after it was found, he hadn't the chance to really dig in and learn more about the Elemental Overlord...until now._

_As luck would have it, he made a new friend a month or so back. Well, more so a work partner, but you get the point. Having traveled the universe for a couple years, this person had now settled down for the Mushroom Kingdom._

_This wasn't a vacation though. He had very pressing matters to attend to._

_Who is this person, you may ask? You may or may not already be familiar with them..._

E. Gadd was atop a two-tier stepstool looking at a small piece of stone with a long looking glass. Behind him was an eight-sided metal gateway with a swirly portal active in the center. A second later a huge tablet with legs appeared to walk out.

In actuality, it was the professor's partner carrying it. They turned to face him, revealing that they were a near splitting image of Mew. The only key differences being that his hair was black, his eyes were grey, and that he wore a black-white tye-dye t-shirt (E. Gadd approved design!)

"Where do you want this Professor?" His tone was also somewhat deeper and more courteous.

"Right on that table Riku my boy!" E. Gadd replied without moving his head.

Riku faced the only other table in this small space and dropped the hulking tablet right down. The table's thick metal legs snapped and the whole thing crashed down. The professor raised his head, fanning the stone dust away with his hand.

"Sorry about that." Riku firmly apologized.

"Nonsense! Now I don't have to drag my stepstool around! Ohohoho!" E. Gadd hopped down and was just tall enough to peek over the whole tablet.

"My my, this is the biggest one yet! Hard to believe it survived this long." E. Gadd slowly pulled himself onto the tablet and looked it over alongside Riku.

It depicted a titanic black dragon facing off against a holy warrior in a sea of dark-blue flames. Below it was some unintelligible text.

"Oh me oh my. What is this?" E. Gadd said, his breath literally taken away.

Riku stared wide-eyed at the table and felt a major ominous vibe from it, _"This is the first tablet I've gotten this feeling from. Could this...have some relation to Alex Whiter's goals?" _

He lazily peered towards the Professor and asked, "Can you translate this professor?"

E. Gadd had already pulled out his handy multi-functional tablet and taken a snapshot. But the screen flashed red and yelled "Error!", prompting him to put it away and shake his head.

"No go my boy. This is written in a different language from the rest," His tiny chest huffed out a very large sigh as he regrettably stepped off the tablet, "And after I spent all those months learning one new language."

"Well we don't have time for you to learn another professor." Riku tucked his hands in his pockets and stared at the text. The longer he looked, the more hypnotized his gaze appeared to be.

"...If you wish to bring about the end of days, then heed what I have to say..."

"Riku?" E. Gadd curiously turned his head back and watched Riku read off the tablet without pause.

"First defy the celestial guardians and bring the sun under your command. Then swear servitude to the prison in the center of the universe, and fell your traitorous hand. Finally, bring equality between darkness and flames and the Betrayer, Justek Arcavira, shall awaken."

Riku recoiled slightly and fluttered his eyelashes. Slowly laying a hand on the side of his face, he heard E. Gadd mumble in a dreary tone, "Oh dear. The Elemental Overlord has left behind yet another prophecy, a foreboding one at that!"

"It sounded more like a set of instructions than a prophecy," Riku pulled hand away when the odd feeling left him, "But why could I understand it and not you?"

"I'd bet coins to crumpets it has to do with you being an Elemental Overlord, Riku." E. Gadd proposed jollily.

"Makes sense..." Riku groaned in thought for a few moments, _"But if I could decipher it, so could Alex."_

He closed his eyes and calmly reviewed the text in his head, _"I don't get what the first two steps mean, but the last one...'Bring equality between darkness and flames'. Hrmm, could it refer to fighting someone of equal power? Joe Dark would make the most sense, but I doubt Alex even know he's still alive. So who else?"_

The answer was right inside of him, or rather, his existence was in fact the answer. Riku looked down at the hand laid on his chest and felt the elements within, _"My brother...that's right! My power of darkness came from him."_

"...Oh no." He whispered, much to E. Gadd's concern.

"Riku, you've suddenly turned paler than a Boo! Is something the matter?" The jolly professor inquired.

Riku swung his head at him with a wide-eyed glare and said, "There's not time to explain professor. Does the Stargadd still have the coordinates to my Earth?!"

"O-Of course! But why?"

A dread feeling swelled in the pit of Riku's gut as he told E. Gadd the truth, "Because Alex Whiter plans to use my brother to unleash this Justek monster upon the universe!"

_Back on Earth..._

Thrown forth out of a dark rift, Kairi landed on her rump atop a hard blanket of snow and ice. She quickly stood up only for the rift to close.

"M-Mew!" She stuttered angrily, the cold taking ahold of her skin and sending shivers down her spine. She cuddled her arms against her chest and her teeth chattered.

"W-W-When this is over he's sooo getting an a-a-ass kicking!" There were bigger things to worry about right now though, like that big crimson flash spreading over the state. She gazed up at the sky and saw a bright, red light dwarfing the light of the sun and turning the atmosphere dark orange.

"Th-there's so much power coming from up there...It-it might be even more than Gravitus'!" Kairi trembled more from worry than the cold now. Nevertheless she grit her teeth, slapped down on the Angel Drive, and changed into her holy garb.

"...You just had to ask to do something today..." She bemoaned as she zipped off the top of Mt. Rainier and flew straight back to Seattle to assist Mew in fending off the possible end of the world.

Though from Mew's point-of-view, he was alone in this confrontation. When Alex finally stopped commanding the debris to toss him around, he was left standing in the center of the ruined city. He pulled his head back all the way and glared up into the sky.

The flaring red star was an exhibition of the pure destructive power an Elemental Overlord was capable of. From its sheer presence alone Mew could feel the planet tremble at his feet.

Mew clutched his fists and cracked his bare knuckles. With his eyes poignantly narrowed at the sky he scowled his teeth and murmured, "Damn it Alex...Is this really how far you're willing to go?"

"_Even I can feel that boy's power from here..." _"D." whispered with mild ecstasy as his dull features sharpened into an eerie grin, _"Your planet has run its course. There will be no stopping its annihilation now."_

The demon's cautionary words did not go beneath Mew's notice. He just didn't care.

"_I can't chase after Alex. It'll leave the planet open to his attack." _Mew closed his eyes, calming his heartbeat to the rhythm of his slow, vapid breath. He started pulling both his hands back to the right side of his body, cupping them together into an open circle.

"_What do you think you're doing?!" _The demon shrieked loud enough to tear a gaping hole in its lungs were it still alive.

Black embers formed around Mew's body, and flickered into view across the desolate battlefield. The flames still remaining changed to black, and were drawn to the space between Mew's hands like there was a vacuum there.

"_No! NO! NO! I forbid this nonsense! You will not throw our lives away for this miserable planet again!" _The demon could scream, claw and tantrum his way through Mew's mind all he wanted. His voice was deaf in his prison's ears.

The black flames expanded to fill the space between Mew's hands, then pushed forth beyond it. A violet light shone and twisted in the middle, acting as an alluring invitation to the void. But ironically enough, this dark warrior wielded a pure, dauntless heart.

"_Whether or not I inherited your feelings for this world doesn't matter to me Alex. I've been my own person for long enough. This urge to protect the Earth from evil? Those are __**my **__feelings now." _

Mew thrust his eyes wide open and shot a blistering glare straight up into the sky. The ground started to crack around him, as his energy pulsed forth as ripples across the ground.

High in the sky, where every trace of blue and white was swallowed in the void of starry black, Alex arched his brows downward and saw the faint glint of Mew's power all the way down there. The planet turned, but Alex kept even with his target the whole way through.

"That's right...Fight! Fight with every last borrowed fiber of your being replica! And fall! Fall with this wretched excuse of a world!" The flames he churned before him had grown to be a hundred feet in diameter, ready to be funneled through the glyph on the other side of it. The sphere released flares, as though it was now like a sun.

Back on the ground, Mew finished gathering as much energy as he felt was necessary to begin. He then took one last look around him. It was just him, and Alex. No one else could nor wanted to intervene. He then stared up at the bright burning star in the sky and thought only one thing.

"_And you're going to know how I feel...Whether you like it or not!" _

The silent winds of the world would soon quickly be cast away, only to be replaced by the disharmonious claps of chaos and destruction across the landscape. All across the planet, people everywhere just _knew_ that something was about to happen. Perhaps, this could be considered the one time where ignorance is bliss...

"THIS ENDS HERE!" The two warriors proclaimed at exactly the same time.

Mew swung his hands up at the sky with all his might. Alex pushed the solar flames through the glyph. Two beams, both beyond the magnitude of power of anything humanity has created, were sent on a collision course of one another.

The black flames of Mew's had a width beyond the outer rim of the ruined city, and Alex's concentrated wave of destruction met him in scope. They pushed through the planet's atmospheric layers and the clouds around them disappeared from existence out of respect for the two's power.

In the blank emptiness of the sky, split between the boundless space and the edgeless surface, the two beams met at last. Their mighty powers clashed, slamming against each other with the resounding "Boom!" of a hundred nukes.

Mew fought to keep the sweeping destruction in check by digging his feet into the ground, but he couldn't prevent the immediate area from decimating whatever buildings were still standing in the city. The hills housing the houses collapsed, with all that grass, dirt and debris sliding down towards the city.

It threatened to flood Mew over, but was constrained by the massive bubble of energy his effort was exuding. Mew squeezed his palms together as the darkness split off from his skin. He grit his teeth and the pressure from the energy pushed aside his facial features.

"If...If I don't put my all into this...! E-Even if I...Ghhh...Win...! The Earth...will...be damaged...beyond repair!" There was no inches to give. No steps to take back. Every moment, every _second _counted here.

"I-I've seen the near end of reality and somehow THIS is the craziest thing I've ever done!" Mew had to laugh a bit though. If he got too swallowed up in the moment then that was when he truly would have last.

Only the purest exertion of his feelings would be enough to beat Alex's high concentration of negativity. Joy against anger. Celebration against sorrow. Laughter against hatred. A tidal wave of emotions flew forth from both fighters and fed into their respective attacks, and it seemed from the start that neither side would dare budge an inch in their resolve.

"Is that...all you've got?!" Alex strained through his teeth as the demonic, feathery wings of fire on his back flaunted their majestic breadth where no one but him could see. He shoved his burning palms closed into the flames, amplifying the power of his attack by a couple degrees.

The red flames started swallowing the darkness within its core and pushed rapidly onward towards Mew. Mew widened his eyes and shouted "Shoot!" before pressing his hands out with one vigorous thrust and exclaiming, "N-Not even close!"

His beam grew larger and louder, letting out a momentous screech of raw power that cracked the air the struck a nerve to Alex high above. The Phoenix of Destruction found his attack matched again, but to some extent it was also being overpowered.

Alex's arms shook, the elbows bending back towards his chest. Yet he grinned as wide as he could and declared at the top of his lungs, "This is nothing to us! Return to nothingness from whence you were BORN!"

He pounded his hands into the fire and the beam continued to grow in scope. From its tip a series of shockwaves fired down upon Mew's location, disheveling the already unstable ground he stood upon. Mew grinned and stood his footing, with only his heel sliding back a couple inches.

The extent of the shockwave extended out past the city and shook the air for miles out. Anyone bold enough to stick around at this point were sent tumbling onto their hands and knees, or worse thrown off of high perches. Though their lives seemed doomed to destruction, there was a guardian angel nearby to rescue them in the nick of time.

Kairi swooped in and caught the people in a soft layer of aura, bringing them right up to safety. But there was little time to stick around and accept their thanks, she had to hurry right along towards the epicenter of this clash of titans.

She reached the edge of the city only for the pulsing power to shove her back, even after she braced herself in mid-air with all her might. This was a hurricane inferno and Mew was caught in the eye of the storm, fighting forth with every tingling fiber of his being.

She could barely make him out down there as he pressed his cupped hands against the cusp of his beam and seemed to be losing ground. He stood on land that could barely be called stable, and his arms were starting to be shoved back towards his chest.

Kairi drew one hand towards her bracelet, specifically near the rainbow colored Neo Drive. She clutched her fingers around her wrist tightly and looked up at Mew struggling for his life.

"All it'd take is one press of the Neo Drive to help him out..." Such a simple action gave her an excruciatingly long bout of hesitation. She swallowed deeply and shook her head as she slowly drew her shaking hand away from the bracelet.

"But..." Seeing the strength of Mew's resolve in action yet again stilled her hand momentarily. She watched with a somber look in her eyes, reminded of the way he charged in gallantly at the last beam that threatened the Earth with destruction.

"Mew's right. Maybe this isn't my fight..." She closed her eyes, took in a deep breath, then laid a hand on her heaving chest and murmured for only her to hear, "But please. Don't die Mew. I know you can do it!"

Mew suddenly felt this rush of energy throughout his body. Violet electricity strew around his arms and legs and he shoved it straight into his flames, mixing the two energies together to create an even more powerful force to clash with Alex's power.

When the beam shoved it shoved HARD, and in a matter of seconds it had overcome half of Alex's attack. The Phoenix of Destruction was shoved back a monumental amount of feet, gritting his teeth as his elbows were locked up next to his chest, stretching the curvature of his body back in an uncomfortable way.

"D-Don't get cocky...YOU WASTE OF LIFE!" Alex screamed as the flames around his body exploded into a full-blown visage of a phoenix. He thrust his arms out, feeling his own bones crack and threaten to break under the pressure he forced onto them.

The beam nearly doubled in size and powered through Mew's attack with ease. In seconds the progress Mew had made was undone, and the dark red flames made their way towards him.

The skies turned a terrifying shade of purple. The clean air was being burned away, and the heat was magnified to an insufferable degree. Mew could outlast the rising temperatures more than most humans, and it was to his benefit that this event was centralized entirely within his area. He didn't need to be worrying about the others right now.

His face exuded sweat, the droplets sizzling away to smoke the moment they left his face. He gasped for breath as most of his strength went towards pushing back against the flames. He could feel the anger. _So much anger_.

But these flames harbored something else deep inside. A faint glimmer of pain. The pain of loss. Mew remembered enough about Alex to know why he felt this way.

As he grit his teeth and felt his knees descend towards the ground, he swung his head forward and shoved every molecule of his hands into the cusp of his beam.

"_You've always felt like the world was your enemy ever since your parents died. I don't know if that's why you finally snapped Alex, but I refuse to let that be your be-all end-all reason for doing this!" _Practically all the memories from his brief time in the Mushroom Kingdom had reawakened crystal clear. He remembered the flowery Driad, the Nimbusian Mallow, the star herald Geno, the cool and collected Gemini, the enigmatic Alpha, the legendary Mario Brothers, E. Gadd, Peach, Toad, even Bowser. All of them pretty much having one thing in common in relation to this battle.

"You had friends who wanted you back. Even if they didn't know what you were feeling, I doubt they would've cared!" Mew's plea to Alex's sanity was strong enough to reach him from all the way up in space.

To Mew's dismay, the Phoenix of Destruction retaliated ferociously with, "Friends are just traitors in the making! If you think we care about such trifle things anymore, then you have already lost!"

He continued pressing forward, unleashing the full extent of his rage onto Mew, "Our rage is infinite, our power always growing, while your strength...plateaued long ago!"

Mew was seeing the edge of the red flames from the corner of his eyes, the glimmer of crimson a prelude to destruction. Yet the flame in his heart could never be put out. He was Atlas, with the world's weight pinned to his back, and he WOULD triumph through this seemingly impossible task.

"You should know better than anyone that I don't know the meaning of the word 'limit' Alex!" Mew raised one foot and stamped it hard into the ground. The planet screamed, the debris around him being swallowed into the void of neverending anger.

"If your rage is infinite then so is my resolve to save you! And that is a strength that you'll never surpass in a million years!" He brought his other foot down to the ground like a hammer and the ground steadied just a little bit.

"_Gotta put everything else I've got into this!" _Mew slammed his palms out with exactly that much force and not even an iota less. The dark black flames started consuming his body as their power was drawn out to their full potential.

With Alex's attack inches away from colliding with the planet, he suddenly found it being pushed back to a more even footing. The Phoenix of Destruction widened his eyes as their attack met on equal terms and not an inch more apart.

For all his boasts about "infinite rage", his limits were now being shown. He put his all into pushing back, but neither side budged by this point. The two were being beaten into submission by their stubborn wills and sweating skin. Neither said was going to give up now. They had both come to far to admit that either side was right.

The planet would have to endure this clash of wills for just a little while longer, but unbeknownst to Mew there was a little more to this scenario than he could possibly have imagined.

Calmly, eerily in fact, Alex's grin crept across his face as he uttered the four words that would damn the entire universe, "Finally...We have won."

Invisible pulses of energy rippled out from the center of the two beams. A loud "click", similar to a lock being undone, echoed throughout the atmosphere. This noise went unknown to most who lived on the Earth. But there were two people who lived in Sancturia who knew exactly what this sound entailed.

Perched upon the edge of their floating city, the sagely Auris and the wise warrior Gabriel stood toe-to-toe in observation of the climax of the battle between Elemental Overlords.

Gabriel nervously clutched his arms against his chest as the hairs stood up on the back of his neck. He then muttered to the one beside him, "So its happening at last..."

"Just as he warned us it would," Auris murmured in melancholy as she closed her sparkled eyes off to the world around her and envisioned a world doused in flames, with three figures lording over it from the shadows, "It was inevitable, and all we could do was delay it."

"He will return..." Gabriel cocked a distressed frown and whispered under a pale breath, "And God help us all..."

Back in the city, Kairi looked up at the sky and watched in awe as the two's ferocious duel ended not with one triumphing over the other, but with both parties reaching a draw.

Their beams of hardened flames mixed together into a titanic sphere that continued to expand for a few seconds, before finally collapsing into nothingness like a dying star.

Were it not for Alex's presence blatantly glimmering in the sky for all to see, the atmosphere's steady return to a more calming blue could have been seen as moment to celebrate victory. But Kairi knew that as long as Alex still lived, this could just repeat all over again.

She hastily looked down at the center of the city and saw Mew standing halfway up with one arm pawing at the sky and another drooped at his waist. The next moment after he fell flat on his face and the darkness vanished from his smoldering body.

"Mew!" She proclaimed. The decision was now left up to her: Either go check up on Mew before he could potentially die, or stop the Phoenix of Destruction before he comes down and finishes the job.

Her heart was racing and made it hard to think straight. But when it came down to sorting through her emotions, anger came out on top. She drew her staff in her right hand and turned towards the sky ready to fly...

Only for the sudden appearance of a new but familiar power to overtake her attention. She turned her head right towards the ground and muttered in confusion, "M-Mew?"

But the source of this power came from the sky, not the ground. A figure surrounded by a silver streak of light bolted towards the atmosphere at hypersonic speeds. Kairi could only stare as they left her sight in seconds. There was something very different about this person's power compared to Mew though...

"Light...AND darkness?" Whoever this stranger was though they couldn't be a foe if they were going after the Phoenix of Destruction.

Alex lingered in the depths of space with his fingers trembling at his sides and his skin riddled with goosebumps, "That was close...He might've gotten us..."

He raised a smirk and muttered without a care, "Oh well. Not like we can die. We have the best insurance policy in the entire universe!"

He started floating back down to the planet to finish the job when something made his pulse rate drop close to zero.

"I was too late..." A voice similar to his own gave a somber but judgmental edict from behind. The Phoenix of Destruction turned around and was caught unawares by a helix-shaped blade being plunged straight through the center of his chest.

Riku was before him, holding his right arm out to command the handle-less blade to plunge deeper into Alex's chest. It could not breech the rib cage, as Alex was stubborn to a fault. The Phoenix of Destruction clawed his hands around the blade and tried to pull it out, but Riku was having none of that.

He narrowed his scornful gaze and squeezed his hand tightly into a fist, "But you won't live to enjoy anymore of this senseless destruction you've caused...Alex Whiter!"

With one thought the blade dragged Alex through the atmospheric layers of the planet on a one-way trip to the surface.

Back on the ground, Kairi was unaware of what was going on except that it gave her a moment to prioritize checking up on Mew. She flew right by his side and picked his face off the ground, putting him in a more respectable upright position.

He breathed out quickly and his eyes opened wide with the spark of life. He laid a hand flat on his beating chest and immediately joked to Kairi, "O-Oh hey...you're back already?"

"Mmmrrrgh...!" Kairi lightly puffed her cheeks and wanted to yell at him, but now wasn't the time for that.

"The guy you were fighting isn't dead yet you know!" She bluntly reminded him.

Mew fluttered his eyelashes and fanned his right hand down with a careless glance to the left, "Yeah I know that. I'm not trying to kill him anyways!"

Kairi's eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets, but she couldn't get the chance to finish saying "What?!" before the source of their worries came crashing down into the ground a few yards away.

A large plume of dust swept towards them. Kairi blocked it off with a dome of aura. Mew widened his eyes and looks towards where Alex fell, where he sensed something familiar coming out of him.

"Hey hey hey! Another one of me?! Don't tell me Alex is a clone too?!" Mew laid his arms flat at his sides and, perhaps delirious from exhaustion, muttered in an unfitting laughing fit, "When did my life become the Clone Saga?"

The dust was settling fast with Alex bleeding from the stab wound Riku had inflicted onto him. The third Elemental Overlord dropped from the skies with his foot slamming down onto Alex's waist, breaking the bones that'd allow him to stand up.

He then planted the palm of his hand at the back of his strange blade and continued to glare down at Alex Whiter with a cold, white fury. The Phoenix of Destruction, with blood dripping from the sides of his mouth, uttered a hollow laugh up at his surprise guest.

"...You're enjoying this...Aren't you?"

Riku tilted his hand back slightly and muttered back without giving in to the rabid dog's bitter taunts, "You deserve what's coming to you, Phoenix of Destruction. Enjoy Hell. You've made more than enough enemies down there."

With the dirt settled enough, Mew got a crystal clear shot of the mysterious newcomer. And as it turned out, they weren't so mysterious after all!

"Holy shit! Is that you Riku?!" The cheerful cry of his long unseen brother stopped Riku from dropping his blade like a guillotine through Alex's skull for just a few moments longer.

Riku turned his head slightly and watched as Mew got out of Kairi's arms and wobbled on over towards him. He swung his hand up, waved it around and hollered with a voice full of life, "Its been how long?! Two years, give or take?! You look great, liking the new shirt!"

Riku slowly blinked his eyes until Mew stopped in place, waved both his arms in front of his chest, and said in a casual, friendly tone of voice, "Now I know we got a _LOT_ to catch up on but...Could you possibly NOT kill Alex?"

Kairi stood right up and understandably yelled "WHAT?!" followed up by saying "Are you out of your mind Mew?! What possible reason could you have for keeping him alive?!"

Mew leaned his head over his shoulder as he shrugged them lightly, "I know, I know its crazy but...There's a few questions I want to ask Alex."

He then faced Riku and pointed at him before then putting a thumb at his own chest, "And with the three of us around its not like he's gonna escape right?"

Riku stared blankly at Mew for a moment then gently closed his hand, dispelling his sword from Alex's body. Alex's scowl trembled, and then he appeared to fall unconscious.

"Alright brother. I guess there's still a few questions on my mind too." Riku stepped off Alex and hauled him over his left shoulder.

"Great!" Mew clapped his hands then awkwardly stared at the city. To say it was destroyed was an underestimate by now. With some canned laughter he muttered, "B-But maybe we oughta head back to the house before the military finally butts in. And trust me, we REALLY don't want to attract their attention with Alex in our custody."

"Agreed. And don't worry about directions..." Riku lifted himself off the ground and calmly pointed past Mew, "I just came from there."

Mew slacked a smile, shook his head, and said with a chuckle, "You've really been on quite the adventure haven't you Riku?"

Riku stayed silent and started to fly back towards the house. Mew and Kairi followed quickly after, not knowing how all this was just the prelude to what would be the longest day of their lives...

_Next Time: The Dangerous Duo_


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: The Children of Justek**

The world was left in a terrible state of affairs after Alex's brief, contained rampage. Rampant speculation and rumors flooded the populace in a matter of minutes with many people demanding answers. The only people who'd come close to knowing what's going on, however, were still just as much in the dark as anyone else.

But there was one man, a one in a billion kind of man, who knew _exactly_ what had happened. While everyone else ran around him like a herd of chickens with their head cut off, he calmly stood aside unnoticed and drank from his coffee cup.

The man commonly referred to as Judas Jeremiah, head Secretary of Defense for the USA, looked up at the TV and saw the vague footage taken of the battle in Seattle. As it zoomed in on the sight of Alex Whiter, his stoic face forced out a smile and he slipped away into the shadows.

He drew out a simple looking wrist watch and with one click of the button summoned a hologram of a synthetic lifeform that looked vaguely female.

"_What seems to be the problem Master Prometheus?" _They asked in a droll, robotic voice filtered through a grainy tone.

"Prepare the Divine Tragedy..." The man's smile wobbled with ecstasy, "My greatest creation has come back to its master..."

Little did he know though that at the moment the target of his interest had been detained by his clone and his clone's clone back at his house. Kairi, tagging along with the three Elemental Overlords, hesitated along the way. It was hard to pass by the few cities between Seattle and the Rocky Mountains and not notice the people clamoring around for answers.

In the blink of an eye what they knew about the world had been changed forever. Alex, Mew, and Riku aren't gods, but to mortal eyes they would be treated as such. And their first contact with such god-like power was to observe their clash decimate an entire city in minutes, and nearly wipe out the planet.

Kairi recalled the first time she had seen the full extent of what Mew's battles could escalate to. It was when he fought the Planetary Aurian Jupiter and managed to survive what wound up being a punch that shattered the moon Europa.

It was an eye-opener, and it let her empathize with what the people must be feeling now. But there was nothing she could do about it right now. Just by flying she was practically in the same boat as the three Elemental Overlords were. No one would be comforted by her dropping down and reassuring them.

With a heavy, solemn frown Kairi kept close behind Mew and Riku and soon enough they made it back to their house. It was quiet. Unfairly quiet. But the three of them just walked right in anyways.

Mew had Riku put Alex down on the couch, then said he'd go dunk his head under the bathroom sink for a bit. He mumbled something about wishing he knew he could absorb elements all this time then went out of their sight for a while.

Kairi sat herself down on the nearest chair while Riku crossed his arms and leaned up by the corner of the wall on the opposite end of the coach. It was no surprise that their eyes were drawn to Alex at the same time.

Right now he was still and lifeless, a far cry from the chaotic inferno she saw moments ago. In this docile light he looked a lot more like Mew. All he really needed was a dumb smile and she'd barely be able to tell the difference.

"Hmmm..." Kairi leaned her upper body in closer and cupped her hands above her legs. Whilst fiddling with her fingers she looked Alex in the face and saw him staring back with his dreadful, bloodthirsty eyes.

"_You're that traitorous bitch's little sister...aren't you?" _

Her eyes started to water and so she squinted them shut, but could not dispel the heavy feeling in her heart. She knew her sister was alive. She knew she was out there somewhere.

"_But why you? Out of all the people who could know where she is...Why did it have to be YOU?!" _Kairi tensed up and stared deeply at Alex's face with a growing feeling of hatred and confusion inside of her.

"Are you ok?"

"AHH!" Kairi sprung upright as her heart jumped out of her chest. She looked over at Riku and saw she had caught him by surprise, even though he barely showed it.

She put a hand on her chest and yelled out in a flustered stuttering tone, "T-Thanks a lot Mew! You nearly gave me a heart attack!"

Kairi silently pondered on that for a moment then felt her cheeks turn red as she whispered, "I-I'm sorry, I called you-"

Riku waved his hand up for a bit and said, "Don't worry about it. I figured that'd happen."

After a bit of calming down Kairi stared blankly at Riku's face. Hair and eye color aside, he was a perfect mirror image of Mew. But compared to his bombastic "brother", Riku's presence was a lot more invisible. If he hadn't said anything just now she might have gone on assuming he was a lawn ornament.

But he was so polite in their first exchange that it took Kairi a couple moments to remember that this guy came from Mew. And he was humble to boot.

"Do you need me to get my brother?" Riku suddenly asked, pointing around his shoulder to the hallway, "Because you've been looking out of it ever since we left the city."

"I-I'm fine!" Kairi hastily blurted out, before puckering her lips and letting out a deep sigh, "...Ok, that's a lie. S-Sorry."

Riku propped his arms up against his chest and calmly mentioned to her, "No, forgive me. I haven't introduced myself yet."

"My name's Riku." He said with a hand placed gently on his chest.

"Actually I...already knew that," Kairi tensely grinned his way and told him, "Mew told me a few things about you when we met."

"Really?" Riku stammered with the faint glimmer of a smile peeking out from the corner of his face, "I'm...kind of surprised."

"_Did this guy__** really **__come from Mew?" _Kairi found herself asking again as she fluttered her eyelashes and continued looking blankly into the clone's face.

"Though today's just been full of surprises..." Riku started scratching the side of his face with one finger while fighting the smile that was growing on it, "I didn't think I'd come back to find that my brother had a girlfriend."

Kairi squeaked and her face turned bright red. She then clutched her hands on her kneecaps and with puffed cheeks proclaimed, "M-My name is Kairi Aurora! I'm a girl and I'm his friend, but I'm NOT his girlfriend!"

Riku edged back slightly with widened eyes and said, "Sorry, I just assumed."

"Mrrrr..." Kairi growled very loudly then deflated the hot air from her cheeks and grumbled, "Ugh, its really hard to be mad at you."

Riku slowly blinked at her like a confused child then resumed leaning up against the wall with his arms crossed. With his gaze back on Alex, Kairi found some common ground for them to converse about.

"...I heard you call him 'The Phoenix of Destruction'," She said in a weary tone, "I get _why_ he's called that but...It sounded to me like you've got a personal grudge against him."

Riku arched his eyebrows down and murmured, "I wouldn't call it a grudge."

"I ran into someone during my travels who said his universe was destroyed by something or _someone_ called the 'Phoenix of Destruction'...And they had the power of an Elemental Overlord. By sheer coincidence I ran into him on another world, and only after that did I find out who he really was and the connection he had with us."

Riku slowly squeezed his eyes shut and open then remarked after a light sigh, "But I don't who he is or where he came from. He's destruction incarnate, and once my brother and I have gotten our questions answered I'm putting him down for good."

A dark sensation rose out of Riku for a moment. It couldn't be described as violent, or malicious, but the intent to kill was there and didn't go underneath Kairi's notice.

It would be hypocritical of her to think ill of Riku for feeling that way though when she felt the same. She wanted Alex dead because he was dangerous. But she needed him alive until she could find out what she knew about Shina.

"_Traitorous bitch..." _The two words Alex used to describe her sister rung in her head once more, the savagery of which they were spoken painting a negative image that Kairi wanted gone almost immediately.

And for putting that sight in her mind Kairi almost lost herself to the urge to throttle Alex by the neck until she choked the life out of him. She held herself back only by the thinnest exertion of her self-restraint as humanly possible.

She needed a distraction, and fast. And fortunately, Riku was available to provide one for her.

"T-There's just something I don't get...Its almost like he wanted to fight Mew specifically. Why?"

"Justek Arcavira." Those two words from Riku replaced the rage in Kairi's heart with a chill down her spine.

"J-Justek...Arcavira?" She aped in a more middling tone of voice.

"Does the name mean anything to you?" Riku perked up with interest.

Alas, Kairi shook her head and replied with, "No. I've never heard that name before in my life. But...when you said it, it felt like I had known them all my life."

"Hrrmmm..." Riku closed his eyes and leaned into the wall some more, "I got the same feeling myself when I spoke it. I didn't have too much time to read into him but..."

He narrowly peered up at the ceiling and murmured, "The tablet told me more than enough. He is the harbinger of the end of days...With the appearance of a black dragon."

"T-The end of days?!" Kairi was shook. Her fingers tensed up on her shaky, knobby knees and her head drooped over the floor. As her skin was flushed of all its color she whispered to herself, "It...it just keeps getting worse and worse. Please please PLEASE tell me I'm just dreaming all this?!"

Yet when she looked up for a brief moment not only was this all still real but Riku didn't look the least bit concerned about it. Kairi wanted to chalk it up to the confidence that seemed to come naturally with being an Elemental Overlord. Except...that wasn't confidence gleaming from Riku's eye at that moment. It was subtle, but she knew what anger looked like.

"It wasn't enough that Alex Whiter destroyed one universe. He decided he'd end them all, and unleashed Justek to help him accomplish that."

Riku's hands started tightening their grip on his elbows and he appeared to shake in place as he growled, "And when I think about the kind of person my brother is in comparison...It just...It just...!"

The brief flash of an intense scowl is all Riku got out before snapping back into a more relaxed state of being. Kairi edged back into her chair as he looked his way, and slowly peered down with a frown.

"My emotions got the better of me for a moment there. Sorry you had to see that." He then turned away for a moment, his pose representative of a solemn thinker.

"..." Kairi was at a loss for words. There was a story to tell there of why Riku felt he had to apologize for expressing himself, but this was neither the time nor the place for it.

Kairi peered over the kitchen counter and thought aloud, "God what's taking Mew so long?"

"Did he say anything weird to you after encountering Alex?" Riku murmured.

"Weird as in?" Kairi reflected on that for a moment and pulled her head back with a sigh, "Uhhh, besides mentioning he was a clone? Nothing I can think of."

"...So he regained his memories." Riku murmured to himself.

"Regained his memories?" Kairi repeated while tilting her head.

"It was just another thing Alex Whiter did that I pieced together in my travels. There was a small but crucial gap missing in my brother's memories for the past few years. And if he filled it in..." Riku closed his eyes and growled deeply for a moment.

"I've known my brother for at most two days of my life. But in that time I learned one thing about him...He hates breaking promises. And I can only imagine he made a few with the people of the Mushroom Kingdom before Alex Whiter intervened."

"..." Kairi blankly blinked her eyes a few times then propped her pointer finger up to mutter, "I'm sorry did you just say-"

A flourish of red hot light blinked through the living room window for a moment, drawing Kairi's attention towards it. There didn't appear to be anything out there, so after shaking her head she resumed what she was trying to say.

Then the light glowed brighter, and seemed to spread around outside. Kairi got right up out of the chair and was immediately tripped up by the ground lightly shaking. Riku pulled himself off the wall and got halfway to the door with his fists tightening up by the hips.

"I-Is Justek here already?!" Kairi blurted out while vaulting over the table to get near Riku.

Riku narrowed his eyes and shook his head, "I'm sensing fire out there but the color of its isn't blue like the tablet described."

Kairi tried to close her eyes and peer at the aura of whatever lied beyond the door, but her vision was quickly flooded by white hot waves of heat. She pulled back behind Riku and waited for him to go after the threat. But to her surprise, he was holding back the urge to fight like a monk would.

But whereas he held back, Mew came running out of the hallway like a cheetah and yelled like he stubbed his toe, "Is Alex up already?!"

He wedged himself in-between the two and then slowly walked past, looking over at Alex on the couch with a puzzled tilt of the head.

"Wait if he's still out of it..." He then caught a slight glimpse at the window and remarked, "Oh, its sunset already?"

Kairi and Riku made the conscious decision to let Mew sort this out for himself, with a little help from some loud-mouthed third party outside.

"HEY PHOENIX OF DESTRUCTION! GET YOUR CHICKEN ASS OUT HERE RIGHT NOW!"

Their voice shook the very foundation of the house and made Kairi want to plug her ears tight. Meanwhile Mew slumped his head and arms back and groaned, "Ugh...Its just one thing after another today."

Mew had his hand on the doorknob by the time Riku told him, "Brother be careful. We don't know who's out there."

Mew leaned his head back with his signature confident smirk and laid-back attitude, "Relax Riku. Did you hear that loud mouth of theirs? Its probably just some punk who thinks he's hot-shit."

He swung the door open and started heading outside. Kairi ran after, thinking to herself, _"Well...At least he's got his energy back...And then some."_

But after just one step forward Riku glanced over at Alex, specifically aiming his gaze down at his pants pockets. He took a silent detour over to him and stuffed one hand down the right pocket, pulling out the black and gold stone he carried inside.

He then put the stone before his face and heard an irregular ticking sound, similar to a heartbeat. He couldn't feel a thing towards it beyond curiosity to be explored at a later time. Into his own pocket it went, and with that he stepped outside to check what's going on.

He slowed his pace past the door upon finding the high mountain cliffs engulfed in flames, and the bountiful garden Mew had worked so hard to make sharing the same fate. The plants endured seconds longer than expected before turning to ashes.

In the center of the wildfire were two figures that could've been held responsible for this. One was a guy with jacked arms and big muscular thighs. His heavy frame could barely be contained by his red open vest and baggy pants, which was covered in streaks of black that looked similar to soot. All across his bare skin were scars of battle. Some were rough. Others barely qualified as paper cuts. His scarlet hair was short cut with a spiky flair, and glowed like it was made of magma. And his eyes, burning bright and yellow, was like staring directly into the sun.

The guy's high and mighty presence didn't distract Riku from the person shrouded in a white shadow to their left. A draping cloak acted as their only present clothing. Their face was covered by a mask built of thickened silver and ghastly in the way its hollow black eyes stared forward. Reddish creases extended from down those eyes to the bottom of the cheeks, sharing some resemblance to a demon. A small plate seemed to help them breathe, which was a blessing given how far back along their head the mask stretched.

Riku wasn't exactly what most people would call short, and yet despite these two beings only a few inches taller than him he was willing to describe them as giants based on presence alone. And it wasn't any energy they were projecting that caused this either. Riku couldn't sense any of that from either one of them, a first from his experience.

The big musclehead made a quick first impression on the three of them by swishing his tongue around in his mouth and then tossing a wad of flaming spit onto the remains of Mew's garden. And if that wasn't enough, he looked at them and proclaimed, "Alright! Who's the little bitch who planted this weak ass garden?!"

Riku could confidently say that whoever this person was, he just pissed off the wrong Elemental Overlord. Mew promptly raised his hand up, snapped back at this strange with a carefree proclamation of, "Yeah, Little Bitch here!"

He then thrust his pointer finger at the man, cocked his eye at him, and got greatly offended by what just went down, "And do you realize how long it took me to get this garden going?!"

Riku stared blankly at the back of his brother's head and even his mind seemed to shut down for a bit. Fortunately it rebooted just in time for the burning hot-head to have come up with a "clever" retort.

"Do I LOOK like I give a shit?! Your garden couldn't take the heat, so it got the fuck outta here!"

Mew bit his teeth down in a scowl, grabbed his left shoulder, and started swinging his fist around in circles while proclaiming, "I don't know who you are but its been a pretty rotten day so far, so if you're rarin' for a fight I'll gladly-"

Riku calmly put his hand down on his brother's shoulder and whispered in his ear, "You just got your energy back, don't waste it now. Allow me."

He then took the lead and Mew settled down with a gentle shrug and shrewd comment of, "Gee Riku, thanks for saving the bad guys from getting their ass-kicked hard."

Riku put that in the back of his mind for now as he stared at the two unflinchingly and remarked, "State your names. Now."

The big guy pulled his head back and sneered, "Who the hell do you think you are asking for _my _name?"

"..." Riku was unamused.

The guy scoffed at Riku not showing any reverence to his power and rubbed his shoulders up without a care in the world, "Bah whatever. You ants are gonna burn up anyways so what does it matter?"

They then took a thumb straight to their chest and yelled, "Name's Solaris! Engrave it in your worthless skulls!"

Then the cloaked figure followed suit, stating in a deep, contorted, husky voice, "And I am Lunis."

Riku stared at them in particular and thought, _"Its hard to get a peg on this one. Between the two, they definitely feel like the bigger threat but..."_

"So are we done wasting time?! In case I didn't make myself clear..." Solaris grit his teeth and a bit of fire crackled out of his body, its appearance dissimilar to what Mew and Riku used despite it being red-orange-yellow.

"I didn't come for wimps! I came to battle the top dog! So tell me where the Phoenix of Destruction is, or I'll turn this whole mountain range into a smoldering crater!"

Solaris was barely one one-thousandth of a dictionary full when it came to his vocabulary, but his actions spoke louder than words. He could do what he claimed, Riku thought. But it was worth pressing the two strangers with one more question in the meantime.

"There's something I want to know first." He boldly said.

Solaris squeezed his fist, lowered his head for a moment, and grunted out an irritated, "Ugh what?!"

"You're connected to Justek Arcavira in some way, aren't you?" Three of the other four flinched, with Mew scratching the back of his head and feeling pretty left out.

"Justek? ...Uhhh, did I miss something?"

Solaris cracked a coy smile and then nudged Lunis with his left elbow, "Whaddya know?! Even after all this time people still know and fear our father!"

"Father?" Riku blurted out with a mild hint of shock.

"Yeah that's right!" Solaris proudly folded his arms up against his chest and proclaimed, "We're the children of Justek!"

Riku cautiously leaned at them and waved his right hand down by his hip, ready to summon his sword. Solaris grinned even wider and said, "But you ain't gonna get to see him, cause I'm more than enough to handle all three of you at once!"

"But I'll tell you what...If you make yourselves useful and bring me the Phoenix of Destruction, you'll get to crawl back into your puny anthill and live just a liiiiittle bit longer."

Riku closed his eyes and hummed deeply to himself for a moment. He then stood still upright, crossed his arms against his chest, and spoke in a delicate manner to his enemies, "We don't know where he is."

Lunis pivoted their head at Riku and he could feel suspicion beaming from their eyes. The two locked gazes for a moment but were interrupted by Solaris throwing a mild tantrum.

"Fucking-!" He swung one arm at the ground, turned to Lunis and exclaimed, "I told you he wouldn't be in some rundown shack in the middle of nowhere! But you just believed what father said instantly!"

"You shouldn't have run off so soon brother," Lunis interjected calmly, "Father said that the Phoenix of Destruction would be in this area. He never said this house."

"S-Shut up! You sayin' this is my fault?!" Solaris planted a hand firmly on his chest but Lunis didn't say a word back.

While the two siblings squabbled Riku noticed something going on behind them. The blades of grass that survived Solaris' presence were being turned into diamonds. Mew snuck up next to Riku, giving him a mild scare, then snickered in his ear before putting a finger up to his mouth to go "Shhhh".

He then coolly took the lead and waved his arm out all the way in front of him, "Alright alright! I don't know a thing about this 'Justek' character but I know trouble when I see it!"

Solaris and Lunis looked at him with equally dumbfounded expressions. But when Mew snapped his fingers the two were certainly going to see his actions in a different light soon enough. The diamond blades shot out behind the two figures and bound them up tightly like a bunch of ropes. They both looked shocked, and could barely move their arms and hands around.

"Hehehe..." Mew lowered his hand to his hip and remarked, "How's that? Not bad for an ant eh?"

Solaris cocked a mighty grin and retorted, "Fine..._You _can be upgraded to a termite!"

His body exploded with flames that melted the diamond down to liquid and then to ash in seconds, freeing the both of them. He then kept those flames burning strong, some embers even spewing from the sides of his mouth.

"But what's a termite...To the strongest of all the Sun Gods?!"

Mew backed off next to Riku and leaned in to whisper, "So uhhh...got a Plan B?"

"_...Sounds like we can't avoid a fight here." _Riku raised his right hand up and Solaris did the same. The flames spiraled around his arm like a miniature dragon unfurling from its cave.

"I've wasted enough time on you weaklings. Time to fry!"

Lunis put their hand on Solaris' wrist and with a gentle touch pushed it down, reprimanding him as he looked on all bewildered, "No brother. If the Phoenix of Destruction isn't here then we are to continue on with father's plan."

Solaris rolled his eyes and grumbled "Ghhh, fine" like a child denied his dessert. But he put on one last show of intimidation by glaring down the three people in front of him and declaring, "You're lucky we got better things to do! But if you get in our way again I'll fry you all to a crisp!"

He squeezed some flames into his hand and then turned to Lunis to say, "You go on ahead Lunis. I'm gonna go visit some old _friends_ and blow off some steam."

With an acknowledging nod Lunis vanished in a streak of silver, while Solaris left via a plume of flames.

The enemy had made themselves known, and worst of all they did so right at their doorstep. Riku couldn't even consider it luck that they managed to avoid a battle. Cause now the two had escaped and who knows what they could be doing out there?

Riku squinted his eyes shut and thought to himself _"I shouldn't have hesitated..." _With a hard scoff he then muttered, "Darn it...!"

But Mew was right there to put an arm over his shoulders and pat him on the back. With his big smile shining brightly on his face Riku felt a bit relieved to hear Mew tell him, "Buck up Riku! We'll have our shot at them soon enough!"

He then watched as Mew went over to the by now mentally exhausted Kairi and proclaimed, "Well Kairi! Ready to save the world for the second time this week?!"

And just like that a lot of the fatigue was wiped off her face, but she was rendered speechless in the process. All Riku could think when seeing those two was, _"Those two have a strong bond of trust."_

His heart sank a little as if, perhaps though he couldn't bear to admit, he was envious of what they had.

"...!" Riku's eyes went wide open and he turned to the front of the house.

"Ridiculous. If you could barely stand against us then what chance do you have against them?" Alex Whiter dragged his feet out the front door with a grin full of malice.

Kairi tensed up and glared at him, and he glared back with a rising sneer. Mew stepped in front of her and smirked at Alex.

"That's pretty big talk considering I kicked your butt Alex." He could say confidently.

"We only matched your pitiful power level in order to meet the conditions to break the third seal," Alex lightly ignited his body in flames and hissed at Mew, "You can never beat us replica. Not even if you trained all your life!"

Riku fully expected his brother to play along with Alex's cockiness but what he said instead caught him by surprise, "Third seal?"

Mew crossed his arms up to his chest and leaned his head back in thought, "Funny you say that...A certain mad tyrant we beat a couple days ago mentioned a 'first seal'."

"_What?" _Riku thought with his eyes slowly widening in surprise.

"I guess it all makes sense now..." Mew stared Alex dead in the eyes and told him, "Alex...You were working with Gravitus to free Justek and his children, weren't you?"

"'Working' is not how we'd put it," Alex raised his spindly fingers up by his face and started cackling, "That power-hungry louse set the pieces in place for you to knock down. Including himself, funny enough."

"What are you talking about?!" Kairi exclaimed.

Alex pointed one finger slowly up towards the two of them in particular and murmured, "YOU defeated those nine worthless warriors. YOU killed that metal plated puppet. And YOU let yourself fall right into my hands."

Alex twisted up a grin and leaned his head slowly to the right, "We didn't bring the end of days upon this pitiful universe. YOU did, replica."

Mew narrowed his gaze and shook his head. He wasn't having _any of that_.

"This is what **you **wanted Alex. This 'pin the blame on me' bullcrap is some tenth-grade psychology that a shitty villain would come up with."

Alex somehow grinned wider and drooped his hand down by his hip, "You're right. For once, we suppose. Needless to say right now we are relishing in the fruits of our labors these past few months."

"What gives you the right to act this way?!" Kairi suddenly yelled out, held back only by a minor amount of fear in her voice. She pushed Mew aside and thrust her finger up at Alex's face, "People aren't just things you can slaughter and toy with however you please!"

"Oh but its so easy, so why shouldn't we?" Alex's easy response to that shook Kairi. He then stretched his arms out by his shoulders and murmured, "All it took to sway that fool Gravitus to our mission was endear to his pitiful lust for power. Giving him immortality proved to be a decent motivator too."

Riku felt an intense rage suddenly shoot out of Kairi's entire body. She tried to rush at Alex but Mew held her down by the shoulders, forcing her to lash her face out at him.

"You BASTARD! That monster made my mother suffer for two-thousand years! He's responsible for so much pain and misery! AND ITS ALL BECAUSE OF YOU!" Her tearful rage would never reach the Phoenix's cold heart, not matter how hard she tried.

"I know he made her suffer," Alex focused in on one single point, and sought to draw out the most agony he could from it, "_And that's exactly why I did it."_

With one whimper and a gasp, Kairi lost the strength of her rage and fell onto her knees, with Mew helping her down while angrily eyeing Alex.

"That's enough Alex! This isn't like you at all!" He screamed desperately.

"This has always been..._us_," Mew spread his arms out all the way then slammed his hands together for one thunderous clap, "Accept it."

"I won't," Mew shook his head and bluntly told him, "Because you're lying to yourself."

"..." Alex put his hands down towards his pockets and murmured, "We've wasted enough time here. You've served your purpose. Now it is time for us to go on the **hunt**."

The moment his fingertips dipped into the pockets his eyes poked down with a curious gaze. Riku then raised his right hand out of his pocket with the black and gold stone pointed straight at Alex.

"Holy shit!" Mew jumped to his feet and slowly backed away from the two's stand-off, but not without a brief warning to his brother, "Uhhhh Riku...You **do** know what that is right?"

Riku narrowed his gaze at Alex, briefly taking pleasure in the look of surprise the Phoenix of Destruction had. A small, bitter scowl formed on his face as he tucked his hands into his pockets and murmured, "You've inconvenienced us twice now...This is starting to become a pattern we're not a fan of."

"Too bad." Riku responded in kind, clutching the stone tighter around his fingers.

Alex cocked a snide smile and whispered defiantly, "And just what, pray tell, do you plan to do with all that power at your fingertips?"

"You pride yourself on being invincible but even you can't stop the hands of time," Riku raised the stone a little more and mentioned, "Aging you until your dust will be a fitting end after what you did to the Marvel Universe, destroyer."

Riku closed his eyes and focused his thoughts into the stone...But nothing happened. He opened his eyes and assumed he just wasn't using it correctly. But when Alex started laughing, the truth would wind up being not what Riku was prepared to hear.

"Hahaha! That's the one blessing we can attribute to that Gaia Temporis...So long as we host the soul of 'its' precious one, 'it' won't ever let us die!"

"W-What?" Riku stuttered.

Alex swung his right hand up and instantly recalled the stone back into his hand. Riku's heart started racing and he swung his right arm out to draw out his helix-bladed sword. But as the Phoenix of Destruction raised the stone above his head he had only one thing to say.

"Oh we don't plan to kill you worthless copies yet. You will both live to suffer the end of everything, where you shall come to understand the pain and venom...of this wretched universe!" Alex squeezed the Gaia Temporis tightly in his flame-coated hand and then warped out of sight before Riku could swing his sword.

So Riku was just left there with his arm hung in the air. He closed his fist to dispel his sword, then punched the empty air next to him.

"_I've failed twice...And because of that, now there's three dangerous enemies set loose on the planet." _He could barely bring himself to look Mew in the eyes after that.

But at the moment Mew was more concerned with trying to rouse Kairi out of her funk, "Kairi can you hear me?"

"..." She fluttered her eyelashes and stuttered out a weak, "Y-Yeah...I...I can hear you just fine Mew."

Mew kept his hands softly on her waist to support her in standing back up. While she was recomposing herself Mew glanced back at Riku and started to rub the back of his head.

"Sorry Riku, that was my bad. I should've intervened."

Riku didn't know why Mew was apologizing, and wasn't going to let him take the blame on this one, "No its my fault. I'm sure my risky decision took you by surprise-"

"No no no!" Mew shook his head, "That was a good call taking the Time Stone out of his pocket. It just turns out that uhh..."

He looked briefly at the ground and admitted aloud, "Ok I really don't get how come that didn't work actually..."

"Mmrrrmm..." Kairi was showing signs of dizziness as she rubbed the side of her head. Riku crossed his arms and immediately suggested, "You need to take her home Mew. This is too much for her to handle."

"W-What?" Kairi swung her head back at them and started to say, "I don't need to go anywhere!"

Mew looked back at both Riku's stern glare and Kairi's annoyance for a few seconds, culminating in him gritting his teeth and saying, "Riku's right. I _should _take you home..."

"Mew-!"

"But I'm not going to," Those five words quieted Kairi down instantly, and from there Mew turned his attention to Riku and shrugged, "I know she doesn't look it Riku, but she's made of tougher stuff than you realize. It'd be something if it was just one threat...But with Solaris, Lunis, Alex AND Justek all out there we're going to need all the help we can get."

"..." Riku silently lowered his hands then let out a sigh, "Alright, I'll trust your judgment on this brother."

Mew then clapped his hands and said "Great!" which quickly deflated into a genuine inquiry of, "...Now what?"

"We need to find the others before they can wreak havoc across the Earth," Riku stated the simple answer, "But the question is how?"

"Well that Justek guy hasn't shown himself _yet_..." Mew snapped his fingers and came up with an idea, "But I bet we'll draw him out if we go beat up his children! That's usually how that works."

"That's a thought but how can we track them down?" Riku started rubbing his chin and bringing to their attention, "Didn't you notice how we couldn't sense their power at all?"

"Ooooh that..." Mew crossed his arms lazily against his chest and leaned his head back, "That might be a bit of a problem."

"...I-I think I know where Solaris is going to," Kairi suddenly murmured, her face as pale as a ghost's, "He...he's going directly to Sancturia."

"Sanc...turia?" Riku said in a bewildered tone.

"What makes you say that?" Mew wondered.

"The comments he made towards you guys sounded like he was around when the original Elemental Overlord was. And if Solaris knew him..."

"Oh shit, then he'd have known your mother too!" Mew widened his eyes and Kairi started frantically nodding her head.

"Mew we have to hurry! Mom and the others are defenseless up there!"

"Don't have to tell me twice!" Mew proclaimed, with Kairi taking flight a moment later. Before he headed off he finally noticed Riku staring blankly at him.

"I'm really confused right now brother." He stated.

"We'll explain it on the way! Just follow us!" Mew swung his hand over his head as he turned around, but upon doing so he suddenly paused in the direction of the house.

Riku floated off the ground slightly and addressed Mew's stillness quickly, "Brother, what's the matter?"

He could only hear him whisper to himself "He didn't burn down the house" but didn't feel like pursuing a conversation about it. A quick second later and Mew turned around, apologized for the delay, and took flight alongside his brother.

Their mission? To hunt down Solaris before he could launch an attack on the hidden city of the Aurians.

As for the other three, they would deal with them as they come. It was the most they could hope to accomplish with so little information about their new enemies...

_Next Time: Creatures of Chaos_


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6: Remnants of the Void**

After the briefest of detours to put out the fires Solaris started on the mountain, the two Elemental Overlords and Kairi started heading northbound in order to pursue Solaris.

Along the way Riku was caught up to date on everything his brother had dealt with in Sancturia. Mew was the primary narrator of events because Kairi was too deep in worry regarding the safety of her mother and people.

"And that's about all there is to know Riku!" Mew said with a snappy click of the tongue.

"I see..." Riku lowered his head slightly and began to recap the details, "So Sancturia is the last city from the original Elemental Overlord's time. His former wife lives there, and has been alive for two-thousand years?"

Those appeared to be the most important details that he gleamed from the sermon until he turned to look at Mew and said, "And that Gravitus person...The way you described him reminds me of someone I fought along my travels."

"Really?" Mew perked up slightly, "When was that?"

"A few months ago," Riku humbly hung his head in shame and muttered, "He beat me though. Said I was a 'warm-up' for his new body."

"Well I'm glad he didn't decide to kill you Riku!" Mew said, breathing a quick sigh of relief.

"Why are you taking so long?!" Kairi blurted out roughly fifty feet ahead of them. It was true though. Mew and Riku were definitely capable of flying a lot faster than this. By this point they had just barely passed the west side of the Rocky Mountain range.

"We'll make it in time Kairi," Mew bucked up with a smile as he floated over next to her, "I doubt Solaris even knows where Sancturia is! And even if he finds it, Gabriel will be there to hold him off!"

Kairi visibly tensed up, and before Mew could try again at reassuring her Riku intervened, "Brother, you're making a lot of assumptions there."

Mew turned slightly to see Riku crossing his arms and closing his eyes as he explained his logic, "We don't know just how strong this Sun God is, nor do we know just how much he knows about Sancturia's location."

He narrowly opened his eyes and added the 'piece de resistance' to his reasoning, "Or worse, how much of the Earth he'll raze to the ground trying to find it."

Mew didn't have to recollect the damage done so far by Alex alone. The burning remains of Seattle were within eye distance to the left. So many people lost their homes, their way of living, even their lives, to the flames of destruction.

And that's the fate that would befall more cities, perhaps even entire continents, should they fail to find and beat back Solaris. Mew went from contemplating to smiling again as he rubbed the top of Kairi's head. He briefly replaced her worry with confusion so she'd be in a more aware state of mind.

"Lets double, no, triple our efforts then!" He proclaimed with triumphant vigor before swinging around to the North and thrusting a pointer finger straight out, "Onward we go!"

He then made good on his word by flying three times faster than before, with Riku and Kairi managing to keep pace. Mew looked back over his shoulder at Kairi. She was glancing at him with a somewhat distant look in her eyes. So he thought to himself, _"Its not like I didn't want to get there quickly Kairi...But you're not as fast as me and Riku. Sorry."_

He wasn't trying to perceive her as anchor holding him back. That would be unfair to her when she's already looking so angry and panicked. But what else could he do really? Tell her that everything is going to be alright? A firm hand on the shoulder worked fine during the whole Gravitus thing because that's what she needed. But everything she heard back there? Alex enabling Gravitus' rotten behavior throughout the years? The vicious Sun God wanting to 'visit' her mother? And the threat of this mysterious 'Justek'?

"_She's not going to be her usual self until all this is resolved, and even then..." _There was a lot to parse through and Mew knew he wasn't the man for the job. Though speaking of info...

"Hey, Riku, come here for a moment," He slowed down just a tiiiiny bit to fly at level with his brother, then resumed his normal pace so they'd be out of Kairi's earshot, "There's something I want to ask you about real quick."

Riku's face scrunched up slightly from discomfort as he hit the nail on the head right away, "I think I already know what it is. What I was holding the Phoenix of Destruction accountable for..."

"Yeah, that." Mew even felt his stomach turning just thinking about what he heard again. The existence of other worlds based on 'fictional' properties wasn't that shocking after the whole Mushroom Kingdom fiasco. But such a grand and powerful universe such as Marvel falling, to Alex no less?

"_We're strong, but not THAT strong..." _And that one doubt gave birth to a question for Riku, "Just...just who exactly did you hear about that from? Was it a recent event or...?"

"Thanos." Riku said. No pause. No stuttering. Just a casual name drop of one of the most frightening villains in the Marvel universe, no big deal!

"And no, this didn't happen recently. The destruction of the Marvel Universe occurred a million years ago. Thanos was the sole survivor." Riku thus further elaborated on.

"_...Boy does that answer everything and nothing at the same time..." _Mew rubbed the back of his head before leaning his head at Riku and whispering, "Are you sure what you heard is true though? I mean come on, its friggin' Thanos!"

"_And boy, did I never think I'd ever say THAT!"_

That did get Riku to stop and think for a moment, but that was all it wound up being. A moment.

"Brother, has the Phoenix of Destruction not already proven his capacity for destruction? Or how unhinged his mind is?"

Mew looked away and saw Alex's contorted, cackling face when he closed his eyes. One more time, and he saw those flames of destruction once again. But even with both horrifying images, Mew's verdict of Alex was as such:

"_I-I don't know...I can't bring myself to believe that Alex would do any of this. At least...Not the Alex I knew," _Mew let out a heavy sigh, _"If only I could find out what changed you."_

"Hmm?" Mew saw a glimmer of red coming from the corner of his eyes and looked up. A wide trail of fire had already burned it way through a couple miles of land on its way to a city. This city wasn't as large as Seattle but still had a worrying number of tall buildings that were currently on fire.

"The Phoenix of Destruction is here?" Riku hastily assumed as the three of them stopped right then and there.

"No way. I can't sense this fire." Mew mentioned.

"How can you _not _sense it?" Kairi asked.

"I don't know!" Mew blurted out whilst turning towards her, "I couldn't sense the stuff outside my house either!"

"Worry about that later you two. You _know_ what this means, right?" Riku's voice of reason snapped the two's attention back towards the city.

Mew wiggled his shoulders spryly and proclaimed, "Yeah yeah! We need to hurry! The people need our help!"

Mew was the first to make a beeline for the city, and he sensed the other two coming a few seconds later. He looked down at the highways and saw that there were a lot of signs of evacuated cars and crowds of people gathered up on the far outskirts of the city.

"_So a lot of them were already on their way out. No doubt because of Seattle..." _It was a brief moment of relief for Mew to see the tens of thousands of people all safe and sound, but that was no excuse to shirk his duties. There were probably still people having trouble getting out.

As he made his way towards the center of the city to get a good bird's eye view of the situation he took some time to look at the flames. The path they carved through the land was irregular, like it wasn't created on purpose. Fortunately for as strong as the flames looked, they disappeared in a matter of seconds.

The flames didn't appear to extend past the city either, which means if Mew's hunch was on the money, Solaris was still somewhere close by.

"_He wasn't kidding when he called himself the strongest of the Sun Gods. He's burning up his surroundings wherever he goes!" _A wildfire uncontained. An inferno in the flesh. Those were the best two ways to describe this new enemy.

Mew was looking to pin down Solaris' location and drag him out of the city kicking and screaming if he had to. He had already seen one city be lost to the flames today, and for him that was one too many.

"AAAHH!" A faint, youthful scream of panic came from below. Mew's pertinent hearing told him that the sound came from straight below. He dove down without a second thought and landed in the middle of a near empty intersection.

"Hey! Anyone out there?!" Mew cupped his hands and hollered, "If you can see me, tell me where to look!"

Through the fire and the flames a faint cry of "B-Behind you!" could be heard. Mew swung around and both swerved and bobbed his head as fast as he could see but saw nothing but more things on fire. He then hollered out again, "Where am I supposed to be looking?!"

While he waited for an answer he took it upon himself to look around some more. When he turned around again he saw a group of people crowded up next to a pile of ruined cars with no way to escape. He then propped his fists on his hips and remarked, "You got your directions all mixed up! I know its scary right now but-"

"N-N-No!" The young source of the voice proclaimed with utmost fright beside his father's hip, "Behind you mister!"

"Huh?" Mew curiously poked his head over his shoulder and saw something moving in the thick rising heat. Undisturbed by the presence of fire they prowled closer, a conglomerate of ethereal shades.

Mew puckered his lips and swung his fists up by his chest, drawing a firm line between this mysterious force and the citizens in danger. The creatures pushed through the heat and their appearance drew near, making it possible to see what they were.

They were a herd of quadruped beasts tall enough to reach Mew's chest. They wore something resembling black flames across their body, with a couple streaks of yellow along their back and bushy tails. The yellow glowed like a bolt of lightning. Their eyes jaded wisps of silver. Judging by what little solidness Mew could make out from their sharp feet, these creatures were predators. They reminded him a lot of wolves, but they were clearly from another world.

"_Oh great, what now?" _It was just another threat to add to the pile. And just like Solaris and Lunis, Mew could not sense their power. What he did feel, however, was sick to his stomach just by looking at them.

"_What the hell? This is just like with..." _

"Mew!" Kairi was the first to come down by his side, with Riku landing to his left right after. Kairi drew her staff, Riku his strange blade, but Mew just kept his fists up and was happy to see them both.

"Took you long enough!" He joked.

"Now's not the time brother. Have you seen Solaris?" Riku firmly asked while gazing around.

"No but there's some civilians behind us..." Mew nudged his head forward and said nonchalantly, "Oh and some legions from Hell in front of us!"

Riku and Kairi looked in Mew's direction but only Kairi commented on them, "What...what are those things?"

"Beats me, but if I had to take a guess they're connected to everything else going on." Mew replied.

"Ssssss...!" A hypnotic sounding hiss came from Kairi's direction. Her and Mew looked that way and saw another group of creatures advancing upon them. They shared the same flame-like composition to the wolves but had long, lithe bodies. Each one was about eight to ten feet long with bits of green embers sticking out in the form of leaves and thorns. Their eyes were pointed and a dark shade of magenta.

"A two-pronged attack?!" Mew exclaimed. The ground then started to shake, coming from Riku's direction.

"Make that three brother..." Riku squinted his eyes towards a group of a dozen giants. Like the two groups beforehand they had dark flames comprising most of their body. But these ones did not share any resemblance to the creature of Earth. They were lumbering bipedal giants whose thick upper bodies and tiny legs forced them to use their round, wrecking ball sized fists to move around. Their fists were coated with a bunch of needle-like flames and their bodies were covered by a thin layer of grain-y embers. And most tellingly, they didn't have any eyes.

Three groups of enemies. No idea how any of them worked, or how strong any of them were.

Kairi and Riku slowly edged back into Mew's back. He could feel Kairi trembling, while Riku's focus was stone-cold. And then there were the civilians, who were shaking with fear and had no way of defending themselves.

"What's the plan brother?" Riku wondered. Duh. Wasn't it obvious?

"We'll each take on a group. Keep our perimeter strong, don't let any of them make a break for the civilians!" Mew locked eyes with the herd of hungry wolves and cocked a cocky smirk, "But don't hit 'em too hard, not until we can find an opening to get those citizens out of here safe and sound."

Their hearts were beating fast as one. The groups of enemies were stationary thirty feet away from each of them. Mew closed his eyes, took in a deep breath, and listened in for the anxious scratching of the wolves' claws upon the concrete.

The moment the leader of the herd lunged forward, Mew exclaimed "BREAK!" and darted at them. Kairi and Riku did the same.

Mew swung his fist back and thought _"Ok, lets see what you got!" _as he threw his punch. He didn't put too much power into it. Just enough to pose a threat to the wolf alone. His knuckles struck the beast's head and made it yield in place.

"Heh, alright, you got a little going for ya boy." Mew dug his fist in a little more and felt like he was rubbing up against some kind of metal surface. That went into the back of his head as he then punted the gnarling lupine right in the chest to knock it back through the air.

"But spunk ain't enough against me!" Mew then snapped his fingers and summoned a decent-sized bolt of lightning to strike down the wolf.

But upon the bolt touching down the electricity seemed to just...stop. It didn't go around it, it didn't go through it, it didn't even look like it was being absorbed. Lightning comes and goes fast, but if Mew didn't know any better he'd say his attack never existed at all.

"What in the world?" Mew clenched his sparking fingers into a fist and watched the wolf land before its heard. It then swung its head up and let out a howl that crackled like electricity.

The other wolves hunched down and rushed past the leader to swarm Mew with numbers. Snapping his fingers twice, Mew then slid his best foot forward. The dirt along the road wobbled forward like a subtle wave of water until reaching the feet of the horde. The ground then shot up as a couple walls of spikes to either impede or impale them outright.

Though that's what Mew wanted. Reality was less favorable to his cause. The rock spikes were broken upon the wolves' touch. But they didn't become pebbles. They just disappeared entirely.

The shock of this allowed the wolves to close the gap on Mew in a couple of seconds and start clawing at his legs. Mew slid back as blood was drawn behind his pants but the horde was thick in their numbers and he had already been surrounded.

The wolves filled with ears with snarls as they tried to pile on top of him from all sides. Mew shot off the ground and used the sky to gain the advantage. But he started to feel woozy, his head bobbing around while a cold sweat dribbled down the sides of his face.

"_Ok. I'm not going crazy here. This is just like..." _The leader of the pack leaped at him and used all its leg strength to latch onto Mew and drag him back to the ground.

"Oh come on!" Mew exclaimed as the beast scratched his arms. He tried to fend it off with flames, but his efforts were reduced to embers with relative ease. With his elements failing for god knows whatever reason, Mew had no choice but to resort to brute strength.

"Alright boy...OFF YOU GO!" Mew clasped his hands around what he assumed was the beast's neck then spun around, throwing them straight into the ground. The hard impact with solid concrete broke the beast's head. Sparks flew forth from a wound for a moment, and then the rest of the creature collapsed upon its own darkness.

"Christ...!" Mew blurted in frustration while swiping the blood off his arms using his chin. He then took a brief glance at how Riku and Kairi were faring.

Riku didn't attack with the elements like Mew did. Instead he seemed to dilute them down to their basic energy form and throw them out as projectiles. His helix blade made for a good conductor.

The golems were too lumbering to keep up with Riku's speed. He effortlessly glided around them and slashed at their legs, cutting through the crowd in seconds. Once on the other side Riku turned around and quickly cut the air in an "X" pattern, sending a rainbow colored blast of energy towards the golem's back.

But Riku dealt with the same problem Mew did. His elements dissolved upon contact with their dark flames. Riku started to ignite his blade and try again when one of the golems shot out many of its needles towards him. These needles were as quick as lightning, which was enough to catch Riku off-guard.

The needles knit through his skin and muscles at numerous points and stiffened him in place. Then the flaming threads woven between the two retracted, dragging Riku in to the golem's center.

Riku let go of his blade and mentally commanded it to slice through the strings. He then dropped to the ground and raised his hand high without a care towards the pain in his body. Then he dropped his hand down and his blade impaled down through the top of the golem's head, pinning it to the highway.

He tugged his arm back and the blade ripped out of the beast's head with a few sparks on it. He then put it back before his palm and narrowed his gaze towards the other golems. He had gotten their attention.

Meanwhile Kairi was having an easier time as far as hurting the beasts go. Her blunt staff broke the limber serpents in two whenever she managed to get a hit on them. Emphasis on "whenever". They were slippery little devils and moved together almost like a single unit. They couldn't fly though so Kairi had an easier time fending them off in the air.

But what they lacked in wings they more than made up for with a strong spring in their step. They spun around and around like a carousel below her feet then jumped at her one at a time, alerting her to their presence with a rattle and hiss.

Kairi's swings were indicative of her panicked state of mind. She attacked with all her strength but none of the focus. The serpents were agile in their ability to slip around her weapon and throw her off of the presence of their partners.

Like was noted beforehand though, its not like she was failing to land a hit. Its just that with how effective her weapon was at dealing with them whereas Mew and Riku's elements were not, she should've cleared the herd by now.

Still, watching the two battles unfold did give Mew an idea. He raised his hand behind his head and summoned his sword. Another wolf leaped head-first into it and Mew cut him down on the turn of a dime.

He then dropped straight to the ground and exclaimed, "Really not a fan of getting physical like this!"

Riku, having cut down a few of the golems on his way back to the other side, responded in a somewhat puzzled manner, "Neither am I brother, but it seems none of our elements are effective on these creatures!"

He let out a light grunt as he slashed a golem through the chest. Kairi looked over her shoulder and wondered aloud, "What? How is that possible?!"

That momentary distraction allowed a snake to coil around her right wrist and then latch its tail around her neck. Pushing and strangling at the same time, the serpent force her staff out of her hand and drained her of the air she breathed.

Mew widened his eyes and stabbed his blade down into one of the wolves that came at him. He then kicked the blade at its side to turn it around, planted his heel on the edge, then shoved the blade through the highway, cutting down a few more wolves along the way.

The remainder of the horde stayed their claws for a moment, giving Mew the chance to recall the blade back into his hand and slash it straight back over his shoulders. All he needed to do was condense raw power down into a sharp form and he easily cut the snake holding down Kairi in two.

Kairi let out a heavy gasp and other snakes lunged in to finish the job. She furiously thrust her eyes open, summoned her staff, and smashed through the snakes in one complete swing. She kept spinning and dropped down, throwing the remainder of the snakes far away.

While she panted for air she lifted her head up and said to Mew, "Thanks..."

Mew cracked a smile and then two wolves ripped through the ground to target the as-of-then silent crowd. The people huddled up and screamed. Mew drew his sword back and gathered power, narrowly focusing in on the wolves.

They darted in so fast that if Mew fired off an attack now, there was no guarantee that someone wouldn't get hurt.

Riku suddenly leaped over the wolves and the two beasts were strung through the gut by some of the golem's needles. Brainlessly dragging its allies back in, the golem would share their fate as Riku launched his sword like an arrow through the three of them while Mew cleaved a horizontal wave of power through their bodies.

"Nice back-up Riku!" Mew gave the thumbs up then was disrupted by the growling wolves behind him. He turned and cut the tip of his blade along the right side of his body, standing before the small army of monsters that remained. The snakes crawled up the sides of the highway, adding to their numbers.

"Riku!" Mew swung his head back over his shoulder and saw his brother drawing his blade, "Kairi and I can handle these numbers! We'll leave the evacuation efforts to you!"

Riku stood up with a blank expression and wondered, "You sure?"

Kairi landed beside Mew and swung her staff at the beasts. Mew glanced at Kairi with a smile, focused back on the wolves and exclaimed, "Positive! Once you're done we'll meet up on the north side of town!"

Riku nodded then turned to the crowd with his sword dispelled. He raised his hands and calmly spoke to them, "Huddle up and hold still. This might get rough."

He waited a couple seconds before using his powers to carve up a large square out of the highway and lift the civilians off into the air. He left Mew and Kairi to handle the enemies.

It didn't take long to get outside the city where the other people had gotten to and drop the platform gently. He then landed on the platform and took a head count. No one had fallen off, and everyone seemed to have a familiar other or two.

"_That's a relief." _Riku closed his eyes and decided to take a second to catch his breath. Little did he know though was that one of the serpents had snuck onto the platform, and it was gunning right for him.

"Watch out!" Someone yelled. Riku sharply opened his eyes and turned around with sword drawn. The snake was a couple feet from biting its fangs into his face...

"CLNNGG!" A metal rod was suddenly thrown into the snake's mouth, stalling it for just that one single second needed for Riku to cut it in half.

Riku's heart rate increased a few beats faster, but calmed down once he put his sword away. He then turned around and saw a person at the front of the crowd hung over and covered in sweat. They were his age with a plaid shirt, a few pimples on his cheeks, and a nearly bald head.

"Thanks." Riku said with a genuine sense of appreciation.

"D-Don't thank me..." The person put his hands on his knees and caught his breath, "I was trying to kill that monster..."

"Martin!" A girl also about his age, with clearly silver-dyed hair and an overall punk appearance, ran up and grabbed the boy by his shoulders to start shaking him.

"What were you thinking?! You could've been killed!"

The two squabbled for a bit while Riku just stood by and observed. He especially picked up on how deeply the boy named Martin looked the girl in the eyes.

"Martin is it?" Riku took a couple steps closer and the two stopped arguing long enough for him to talk to the boy.

"You think you didn't make a difference, but that's not true."

Martin pulled his head back and grumbled aloud, "Anyone can throw a steel rod...You can fly and swordfight and do a lot of cool tricks..."

"Those are my strengths. And you have yours," Riku subtly pointed a finger up from his crossed arms towards the girl next to him, "And you have her to thank for that."

"Huh?" Martin and the girl both looked at him with drooping, confused faces.

Riku cracked a mild smile and glanced back at the city. He could sense a battle unfolding on the northern outskirts and scrunched up his face in discomfort.

"...I think you'll get it someday. Until then, try not to put yourselves in any danger." Riku flies off, an enigma to the people grateful to have been saved by him.

Back in the city Mew and Kairi have finished off the remaining beasts, leaving nothing behind. The two of them were panting lightly, with Mew even mentioning "That took a little more effort than I was expecting..." while he dispelled his sword and her her staff.

"At least Riku got those people out safely." He said looking to the South.

"This is just going to get worse and worse isn't it?" Kairi said in a dreary tone of voice.

Mew turned and put a hand on her shoulder but she brushed it off while uttering in a somewhat bitter tone, "Don't worry about me! I'm fine!"

"Ok," Mew backed off slowly and flicked his hands up by his face, "Ok."

She stood there pouting for a bit. Her eyes were cross and her chest was beating rapidly. There was a very big concern on Mew's end that if she didn't get any answers soon, she was going to have a complete and utter mental breakdown.

Mew's eyebrows perked up as he heard an explosive sound in the distance. He peered over Kairi and past all the heat and flames he saw a large explosion fading. And from it, there was a familiar power attached.

"Alex?" He carelessly whispered into Kairi's perky ears. She bucked up, turned around, and quickly took flight to the North.

"Kai-!" Mew bit his lower lip and better spent his time chasing after her. They quickly left the thickest part of the city and out into more open space. The damage Solaris caused was still visible for a couple miles, but then came to a sudden end halfway to the two's destination.

Mew hastily looked down at the end point of the burning trail and saw the Sun God positioned on the ground doing absolutely nothing.

"Take a rain check on Alex," Mew said while pointing down for Kairi's benefit, "There's the guy we came for."

Kairi dove down into danger without a second thought. Mew couldn't even muster up a sigh as he followed. Right before they landed on the burned ground they drew their weapons and pointed them at Solaris. Kairi went a couple steps further and exclaimed "YOU!" with an unbridled fury that Mew had only seen expressed against Gravitus before.

"Wh-What?!" Solaris flinched and turned around, his expression quickly turning from surprise to disbelief. He drooped his beefy arms and groaned, "Oh for the love of...What the HELL are you two doing here?!"

"You weren't exactly subtle." Mew snarked while nudging his head at the trail of black charred ground.

Solaris stood up and crunched his arms against his chest, his body becoming engulfed with flames, "I thought I told you morons not to follow me?"

Mew narrowed his gaze and mumbled to himself, "I am very offended right now to be get an idiot by this guy."

"I'm not going to let you get anywhere near my mother you bastard!" Kairi exclaimed while tightening her grip around her staff.

"Mother?!" Solaris threw his arms back in recoil then propped himself with a huge shit-eating grin as he proclaimed, "Oh shit you're HER kid?! A crying shame that traitor gave birth to such a wimpy-wimp!"

"GRRR...! I'll show you who's a wimp!" Solaris had hit Kairi's buttons and she was about to make a grave mistake...Were Mew not there to help.

"Don't do it Kairi!" He exclaimed, his concern being what made her come to a swift and utter halt. She bitterly grit her teeth at him but then focused that anger back onto the one who deserved it.

"Ha! Its funny watching you ants try n' act tough!" Solaris leaned his head to the left and muttered, "Though I guess you did get past father's creations...So maaaaaybe you can be upgraded to maggots."

"Gee, thanks..." Mew muttered sarcastically, but then had a quip of his own to dish back at him, "So why are you here? Got lost?"

"N-No! I'm not lost! I-I know exactly where Sancturia is!" Solaris' stuttering didn't inspire confidence, thankfully. He then erupted into a tower of flames and exclaimed, "Oh screw you both I don't give a shit what you say!"

"Then why are you wasting time with us?" Mew said with a smile.

"Because there's no one good to fight on this backwater planet! I sent a bunch of father's creations into that city for a test run and wouldja believe it? None of them could defeat a single one! Unbelievable!"

"What is wrong with you people?! You and Alex..." Kairi's rage was so great that she started trembling, "Can't treat humans like this!"

"Life's all about survival of the fittest! Either you're an ant or a god! And me? I'm 100% bonafide God!"

"I'm surprised you know what that word means." Mew says again.

"Will you shut up?!" Solaris barked back, his voice sounding feral for a moment, before then lashing one of his fingers out towards Mew in particular, "If I wasn't saving my strength for the best fight of my life I'd burn you to ash on the spot!"

"That's not what you said-"

"Mew will you stop provoking him?!" Kairi finally snapped at him.

"What, its not like he's going to do anything! He's all bark, no bite..." Mew threw out a sharp stare towards Solaris and didn't flinch.

"Y-You little...!" Solaris crunched his hands into fists and started to reach into his robe, "You know what? I'm wasting my time waiting for the Phoenix of Destruction to finish off that eight-legged monstrosity."

"Eight-legged monstrosity?" Mew tried to take a peek over the Sun God but he drew out a mechanical sphere that spewed out an obscene amount of black and purple energy.

"And I'm DEFINITELY wasting my time sticking here with you! So here! Have some fun with whatever comes outta this thing!"

Kairi showed mild discomfort as she looked to her right and growled, "Mew...?!"

"Not yet! That's what he wants."

Solaris crushed the device in his hand and a massive rift opened up behind him. He turned around and said, "Come on! Give me something big and brutal!"

A violent roar blew out of the rift and ruffled Solaris' hair. The Sun God clapped his hands and started laughing in amusement as he backed up and allowed the creature entry into their world.

Mew tightened the grip on his blade and his heart began racing. "That doesn't sound good..." He remarked.

"Do we attack now?!" Kairi exclaimed with increasing anger in her voice.

"Not yet!" He restated for emphasis. The rift stretched wide as sharp, metallic claws rusted with blood gripped into the sides and the creature they were attached to forced its way through.

Mew was stunned by just what the creature was, because he could recognize it. It had a black draconic appearance with a long fleshy neck and two bent, deviled horns on its head. The bulk of its muscle were composed of golden fibers while its chest cavity was filled with pink-red flames, much like a cauldron. The monster landed on all four but appeared to have the capacity to stand on its hind legs. Its blood-tipped tail sliced through the rift and leaned its lifeless, carnivorous red eyes towards Solaris.

"Oh...THAT'S not good." Mew murmured.

"What? What is that thing?" Kairi asked, not as frightened as one might expect when facing this creature straight out of Hell.

Mew awkwardly cracked a smile at her and let out a sigh, "Long story short. That thing's not from around here."

"I mean obviously but-"

"No no no you don't get it..." Mew propped the tip of his sword up at the beast, "That right there's called a Corrosive Hannibal...And its from a video game franchise."

"H-Hold on...! You can't mean that-"

"Kairi are you really surprised after you saw Shroobs and the Covenant at Neptune's Casino?" Mew poised in a tactful manner.

"...Yeah you're right," Kairi was loathe to admit, "But why would he call this thing for back-up? It doesn't feel that strong..."

Mew closed his eyes and concentrated on the creature's innards. He couldn't sense anything, or rather, anyone inside. He opened his eyes slowly and had a solemn hum to himself.

"I don't know Kairi." Was all he could say right now.

The Corrosive Hannibal blew steam at Solaris, who was getting out a few more laughs before declaring, "Hahaha! Now this is what I'm talking about! You remind me of the dragons I used to slay back home!"

The towering beast swung its right claw up and drove it at the Sun God's head. Solaris casually held his hand up and grabbed it by the wrist, then acted all condescending towards it, "Whoa there easy boy! You ain't very strong are ya?"

He then took his other free hand back into his vest and pulled out a small vial filled with a dark, ghastly red liquid that seemed to writhe around all on its own. Mew's heart thumped loudly. Looking at that vial was like peering into the abyss of the universe.

"So lets change that huh?" Solaris nonchalantly smashed that vial of liquid into the Hannibal's chest cavity and it shattered, spreading its content throughout its body like a epidemic.

Solaris pulled back and the beast's head lurched up. It let out a harrowing screech of pain as dark red energy pulsed throughout its body. The energy meshed in with its flesh and muscles and set the mighty carnivore ablaze with a vibrant steam of raw, chaotic power.

It dropped on its fours, using the bracer on its right arm to stay up. Mew's heart started racing as the creature got on its hind legs and tore its throat apart letting out a blood-curling roar of dominance over the new land it found itself the master of.

"_I knew it! Its the same sensation I felt with Auris! This is the Anti-Genesis Theorem!" _Mew swung his sword back and Kairi drew her staff for battle.

Solaris turned around, crossed his arms and declared, "Have fun fighting this thing insects! I'm off to burn a traitor or two to ash!"

He flew off, leaving the Corrosive Hannibal with only Mew and Kairi in its predatory sights. The steam from the beast's thin nostrils were signs of aggression, as it could sense that the two before it were threats to its domain.

"Mew!" Kairi exclaimed one last time in fright.

"Now we fight! Get ready Kairi!"

The Corrosive Hannibal stood on its hind legs and slashed its claws down. Two flaming blades popped out of the wrists and cut the ground beside it. Then without a moment's hesitation it sprinted at them, ready to make them its first meal in this world...

**The King of Slaughter: Anti-Genesis Corrosive Hannibal**

_Next Time: The World Devourer_


	8. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7: Endless Voracity**

Riku made a mad dash towards the power spike he felt on the North end of town. He suspected the Sun God was showing his true power because of how inhuman it felt. But in a rare moment of him being caught off-guard, he instead found a demonic dragon-like creature engaging Mew and Kairi.

From the memories shared with his brother he recognized the creature as the Corrosive Hannibal. It was not supposed to be here. And for that matter, it shouldn't have felt this strong. Mew and Kairi were well off so far thanks to their swift leaps and the beast's rather reckless lashing of its macabre blades.

But nevertheless, it was better to be safe than sorry. So many questions tried to hinder Riku but he pushed them into the back of his head and drew his blade to join the battle.

"Forget about us!" Mew's sudden declaration caught Riku unawares again and he paused in place just before he dove down.

Mew drew his blade and stuck behind it as a shield. The Corrosive Hannibal's shadow flooded over his body, its relentless slashes trying hard to chip away at its prey's defenses. Mew cared more at the moment about looking Riku in the eye, even if he appeared to be grunting in effort to prop up his shaking blade.

"Solaris just took off to the North! If you hurry you can catch him!" Mew then put his shoulder into the blade and shoved it at the right moment, turning the Hannibal's force against it. It was forced standing high on its hind legs, where it then fell onto its back.

Riku only had to stick around for that moment to be assured that his brother had everything under control. He gave him a quick nod, then boosted towards the North after the Sun God.

He narrowed his eyes and remained silent. With deep concentration on his blade, he changed into Light Form, which bore no differences to how Mew's looked, and his speed went up immensely. So much so that despite the many miles of distance Solaris had gained, Riku had caught up in two seconds.

The Sun God started turning his head at the first second, then was dumbstruck when Riku swung his own katana at him in the second. Solaris barely whipped up his right hand to block the blade with his bare palm. Riku kept the pressure going and dragged him through the sky, surrounded by a barrier of light.

"Son of a bitch...! You just keep coming!" Solaris' irritation was through the roof. Riku remained calm but all that effort he put in only managed the equivalent of a paper cut into Solaris' palm.

The two parted for a moment and Solaris shook his hand before his chest. Riku then aimed his katana at the Sun God's face. A single drop of blood fell, only to become a red mist from contact with the fire growing around Solaris' body.

"Seriously, what do I have to say to you weaklings for you to get it?! I ain't looking to fight you!" Solaris got nothing out of Riku in response.

The Sun God arched his eyebrows, threw his right arm out, and a dragon-like serpent of flames started spreading out from his shoulder past the lip of his palm.

"Bah! At least you have the decency to shut up and-"

Riku flew with the intent to cut Solaris along the arm. Suddenly a dark rift got in his way, its presence and the power behind it making the stoic Overlord perform a swift, cautious retreat.

Solaris' flames died down but he spat out a scoff of disgust, "Damn it father! I didn't need your gloomy meat puppet to bail me out!"

The source of darkness was a familiar face to all three Whiters by now. It was the boy who became the new incarnation of the Dark King, Joe Dark. His appearance hadn't changed since the time Riku saw him a month ago, except...His eyes now looked completely hollowed out. Nothing stared at him but an abyss of white.

"...What's going on here?" Riku stayed his blade, his savviness paying off when Joe Dark tackled him with dagger drawn.

Though the difference in size was obvious, Joe Dark matched Riku in strength, but the way he attacked was unnerving. From Riku's point of view, his attack lacked his hatred and ferocity.

"Tsk...! Whatever! Later, pest!" Solaris used this opportunity to scram, and Riku was left engaging the young Dark King once again.

_Meanwhile, back in the city..._

Having downed the ferocious Hannibal for now, Mew took an opportunity to address Kairi about the situation, "So do you know anything about this thing?"

Kairi landed next to him and replied, "No...? Not off the top of my head anyways."

"To keep it brief," Mew said as the Hannibal started figuring out how to get back up, "That's called an Aragami. We don't really have effective weapons to deal with it."

"Oh great..." Kairi groaned, having another headache to add to the ever-growing list of them.

"We're fine Kairi! The thing's gotten tougher but together we're still stronger than it!" Mew spun his blade out to his side like a pinwheel then thrust it towards the beast's chest, "We just have to keep on it long enough for it to start destabilizing, and then I'll wipe it out in one blow! That'll keep the Oracle Cells from spreading."

Kairi started reaching for her Angel Drive but Mew sandwiched his hand between them. He looked her in the eyes and calmly said, "They've been catching us by surprise more than enough times for my liking."

He then smiled and winked before mentioning, "So why don't we save a surprise or two for them, eh?"

Only when Kairi moved her hand back did Mew do the same. She firmly nodded her head and for the moment seemed to regain some of that fire in her eyes as she proclaimed, "Ok!"

The two of them then faced the Hannibal as it rolled onto its feet and leered over its right shoulder. A blood vapor came out of its slow, hungered breaths. Mew held his blade back and stared into the beast's eyes. There was no longer a glint of humanity within its gaze. The beast had fully devoured the flesh from which it had been born.

The Hannibal curled its claws into the ashen ground and turned around. It reared its body up and opened its mouth, its innards roaring to life with the light of dark red flames.

"You hit him from his left, I'll attack him from the front." Mew whispered to Kairi before the crackling of the beast's fire drowned him out.

She gave a soft nod of confirmation and made a break for it the moment the Hannibal launched its hellish fireball towards Mew. The fire carried the accursed Anti-Genesis Theorem inside of it. Mew thus said "Screw it" to taking it on and dashed under it to get to the beast.

But when the fireball hit the ground it unleashed a massive pillar of flames that would have decimated an entire five-story building. Mew looked back for a moment with his pupils shrunk then resumed his charge towards the beast's chest.

That was where the cursed Theorem was at its strongest, and Mew felt cold and weak just being near it. But this was one of the beast's weak points, and he intended to breech it regardless of the circumstances. He dragged his blade along the ground then swung it up with one hefty huff of air.

His blade cut across the beast's chest but with an effortless muster of strength Mew swung it back across again. He chipped off bits of its plating and the beast retaliated by dropping on all fours and chomping at Mew's head. Mew hopped back and only got some of its drool on his skin.

He shook it off in disgust, then kept zipping back and forth as the Hannibal gnashed its rotten teeth at him. He only moved far enough away to keep the beast biting. And because of that, Kairi saw her chance to strike.

She rushed in from the direction Mew instructed her to and bashed her staff into the beast's bare arm. She first struck its bicep with all her might to bruise the skin and get its attention. Then as it started to turn its head she hopped and swung her staff down from overhead onto its wrist. The Hannibal's hand twisted on the ground and caused it to be flung on its side, where it skid along the ground for a little bit.

"Nice one!" Mew proclaimed to keep her spirits high.

"What now?!" She hollered.

"Just hit it hard! But don't target the thing on its back! If that breaks, things will get pretty nasty!" Mew cut at the Hannibal's legs then stuck the tip of his blade into the space between them and started carving his way towards the core. The creature's hide was thicker than expected and Mew could barely scratch it from this angle.

Kairi had better luck whacking away at its back. She had to be careful though, for the creature intentionally flailed about to try and get the protrusion on its back hit instead.

The two of them only got a few clean hits in before the beast flipped onto its feet and immediately lashed its tail around. It kicked up a mighty whirlwind that blew the two away from it. The Hannibal then centered itself in Mew's line of sight and kicked up running on its hind legs at him.

Mew dispelled his sword and crossed his arms before his shoulders. Grasping his hands into fists he shot up his skin with millions of volts of electricity and lashed out a cross shaped projectile at the beast's head. The beast was surprisingly agile in swinging past it, during which it raised its right claw and ignited it down to the bracer.

It drove the claw down at Mew's head but he braced himself on the ground and rammed his head straight into it with a smile.

"Hehehe!" He chuckled as he matched the beast in strength even as it pushed all of its girth into dragging him down. He did manage to shove Mew back a few inches, but that was just him playing along with the beast while Kairi wound up an attack of her own.

"Ready yet?" He asked while looking from the corner of his eye.

"Yeah!" Kairi said, having surrounded her staff in aura to give it to shape and sharpness of a lance, "So get out of there!"

She jumped and let the lance loose like a javelin. Mew happily waved the Hannibal goodbye as he slid out of the way and let the beast's confusion linger on its demonic face. The lance impaled the beast in the back and extended through to the chest, where it then pinned it to the ground.

Kairi then dispelled and summoned the staff back into her hand. Flames were spurting out the hole in the creature's back like a miniature geyser. It tried to prop itself up on its claws, but Mew ripped out metal from the ground and used it as netting to hold them down.

He grit his teeth and thought _"So I can still rely on the environment. Guess its just my own stuff that's unusable"_ then cocked his head back slightly and hollered, "Feel free to wail on him Kairi!"

She gladly took him upon on that offer and made a beeline for the beast's back. It struggled to break free but still had free use of its tail in the meantime. It whipped it around with surprising freedom, whisking up winds that Kairi had to stiffen her muscles to endure.

She pushed ahead, slid under the tail, then hopped right up onto the Hannibal's back. The beast's skin was a little slimy and hard to stay on without a little assistance from her aura. After bracing down she swung her staff into the wound she created as hard as physically possible. The beast howled out a cry of pain that shrieked across the sky and shattered glass.

Kairi was letting off so much pent up aggression on this high-level Aragami that it was kind of funny. Solaris wanted something big and nasty to stall them, but instead the Hannibal has met with a truly ferocious beast higher up on the food chain.

Mew was content just letting Kairi have this moment until something cropped up. And that something would be the Hannibal gaining strength off the pain to start breaking its binds.

"Kairi! Fun time's over!" He hollered in hopes of getting her attention. But it was a belated cry, for by the time she caught it she was already about to swing right as the beast pulled back.

Her staff smashed into the protrusion Mew had warned her about but she left right after, meaning it _shouldn't_ have broken. She twirled over the beast's head as it dragged itself away, landing next to Mew panting with mild exhaustion.

"So ummm...how hard were you hitting that thing just now?" Mew felt better to be safe than sorry here.

Kairi gleamed from the corner of her eye and muttered, "Remember when we first met?"

Mew squeamishly pinched his legs together and chuckled for a bit. Then he looked the Hannibal and saw it rearing its head up for a fireball, maybe two if they were unlucky.

"Well...It doesn't seem to have broken anyways..." The Hannibal swung its head down and expunged **three **fireballs in a triangular spread. Mew broke through the gap on the left and ran for the beast's neck.

Kairi however hopped away from the fireball and decided it was time to call in a little back-up. She activated her Beast Tamer Drive and her first thought was to tackle the creature from the one place it wasn't the ruler of – the sky.

The Hannibal parried the swing of Mew's blade with its bracer and threw Mew off-balance. As he stumbled back the Aragami raised its other claw to strike. A falcon of aura swooped down and pecked the beast in the eye with its sharp beak, rising to dive down for the other eye.

The Hannibal redirected focus to the bird and thrust its claws up to tear it to shreds. But with a quick tuck and roll the bird sped between its razor-sharp claws and taunted it with a shriek. For a brief moment, the beast seemed to curl its claws in out of anger before stamping them onto the ground.

The next thing the beast knew Mew was attempting to slice open its chest cavity. He made a little more progress but ultimately the Theorem dulled his strength too much for him to be able to stick around for very long. He slid away and waited for the cold sweat to come off before making anymore hasty moves.

He looked to the right and saw Kairi using her bird to carry a net full of glowing aura spheres that were clearly bombs. He smiled at the ingenuity then stared down the beast. He flared his eyes open to meet the beast's ferocity head-on. With only one eye open the Hannibal chose to stare back and knead its claws into the ground.

It was the king of his kind. Even with its primal instincts and ferocious nature it would not lose its position to some human. Mew put his sword away, knelt down, and clapped his hands between his legs.

"Come on! Come here boy!" Being compared to a dog was the gravest insult to the mighty Aragami. It roared onto its hind legs and charged at Mew like a bull, its mouth consumed with fire.

Mew smirked then collapsed the ground underneath him to escape underground. The Hannibal made a desperate and vain sweep at the ground with a claw then blasted a fireball into the hole. Mew had already gotten far away, where he snapped his fingers and summoned a series of spikes around the beast to trap it.

It wasted time cleaving the spikes with its tail, allowing Kairi's familiar to drop its payload across the beast, being careful not to hit the back. Glaring blasts of crystalline light covered the Hannibal's body and tore apart its bracer, revealing a large strip of burning pink flesh underneath.

The beast collapsed onto its vulnerable arm and seemed to briefly go unconscious from the sheer pain of the hot ash upon its flesh.

Mew re-emerged by Kairi and almost got swung at from surprising her. He then looked to the beast in pain and she asked, "Is that it?"

Mew shook his head and muttered, "Not even close. We only unbound one of its weak points. But we're getting there."

Kairi fiddled around with her staff and huffed out a sigh of, "Ooookay, if you say so..."

The Hannibal crawled onto all fours and suddenly did something neither of them expected. It twisted its right arm out of alignment just so it could reach the thing on its back...And tear it right off. A circular glyph exploded forth from its broken flesh like hellfire, with six wispy trails extending around it in a vain attempt to imitate wings.

Its power rose to new heights, though nothing that worried Mew...yet. No, the more worrying parts were the growth of the Anti-Genesis Theorem's power, which surrounded the beast like a veil of heat, and the way the beast's head was pointed at.

Mew turned slightly to the left and saw its head aimed right for the crowd of people on the hilltops. The beast's mouth drooled and as it hunched over it leaked out onto the ground like acid. It then readied itself to charge. Mew rolled up both his short sleeves then ran out, leaving Kairi with only a vague idea of what to do by exclaiming, "Back me up!"

He grabbed the titan by its tail and with one hard tug had it slammed against the ground. The direct contact with the Theorem was rapidly draining his strength. His vision turned blurry so he closed his eyes. The world still felt like it was swirling around him.

He dug his feet into the ground nice and hard then made a hard tug to the right. The Hannibal clawed in futility at the ground as it was pulled up and swung around by its tail.

Mew just had to build up momentum for a few seconds, possibly longer if Kairi wasn't in position. It was a lot harder to tell when he couldn't see anything.

"Over here!" Kairi yelled through the dust storm Mew had kicked up by now. It came from the East. And from there it was easy for Mew to take aim and throw the Hannibal in her direction.

He opened his eyes just in time to see Kairi having put a few layers of aura around her staff and readying it over her head. She had her arms stretched back all the way, her chest pushed out and her eyes looking positively mad. Then with one excruciating grunt she **slammed** that staff of hers down onto the Hannibal's skull.

Mew could _feel _the crack of its bones after it got hit and when it crashed into the ground. But Mew had to give the Aragami one thing – It was very resilient. Even after taking all these hits it staggered onto its feet and let out a vicious roar.

"_Boy do I wish I had a God Arc right about now...Maybe it wouldn't hurt to go Light Form just for a moment..." _As Mew contemplated pulling the white trigger he heard something moving in the air behind him.

His immediate panic response was dulled a bit when he glanced over his shoulder and saw a few heavy-armored helicopters flying onto the scene.

"_Oh, the military..." _As those chopper blades got louder Mew widened his eyes and proclaimed in shock, "The military?!"

The copters quickly advanced upon the three's battles and had them all surrounded. The side doors slid open and men in black and green tech suits positioned themselves over the edge with their guns pointed down.

They didn't announce their presence with either a warning or a declaration of who they were. They silently pulled the triggers and the next thing Mew knew a hail of red-hot bullets were being fired upon the Hannibal. The beast dropped to the ground and tried to block the bullets with its arms. It was actually afraid. It was actually being hurt.

Mew stared blankly at the beast and only just barely heard another gun being locked and loaded in his direction. He glared at the military men from the corner of his eye then bolted straight ahead before a series of bullets were unloaded upon him.

The bullets tracked his speed with fluent accuracy, a couple coming close to his legs. Mew looked up past the Hannibal and saw that Kairi was also the target of the strange men's fire. He started spinning his blade out to his side to deflect the bullets until he could leap up to Kairi.

"Shield's up!" He proclaimed as he held his sword behind his back then held onto her with one arm to drag her down. From there Kairi hastily put up her aura and that sufficed in holding back all the bullets.

"W-What's going on?!" She proclaimed in shock.

Mew glanced over his shoulder and felt an eerie vibe coming off the bullets as they dissipated upon contact with the aura. He arched his eyes concernedly and murmured, "I don't know. This stuff _definitely _isn't standard issue."

But for as much as these strange men were against them, their presence here was helpful in weakening the Aragami. They were drawing blood and the beast couldn't even move.

"Just hold out for a bit longer Kairi, they're going to run out of ammo eventually." He assured her.

"We should be fighting back!" She countered with.

"If you want to kill humans go ahead!" Mew suddenly raised his voice in anger, "But that's not what I'd do, even if they were my enemies."

"O-Okay Mew..." Kairi backed down with a sorrowful look in her eye that made Mew feel extremely guilty.

"...S-Sorry Kairi. Its just...been such a long day for the both of us already..." This was a good time to get that off his chest, so of course the moment had to be ruined by outside forces.

The Hannibal suddenly slammed its claws onto the ground and shook the copters with a hair raising shriek. The sides of its neck were split open as its bloody scars clamped shut and the bullets expunged from its flesh. Entwined strands of pink flesh spewed out from the plate on its back and merged with the burning glyph. When it split into six paths it hardened up, where a fungal membrane grew to fit between them, forming a pair of monstrous wings.

"It...evolved?" Mew couldn't believe what he was seeing, not even for a second.

The first thing the Hannibal did was use its newfound flight to go straight for the copters that assailed it. It flew with no difficulty and its claws tore through the hard steel like rice paper. The halves of the copter exploded and toasted some of the soldiers alive. The other two copters shot at the beast and reopened the old wounds.

It didn't care anymore. While snagging its fresh meal from the remains of its carrier it sliced its tail through one of the copters, sending it flying into the other one.

Mew hardened his gaze and ran out from behind cover. He dove straight up at the inflamed machines and tackled the soldiers out to safety, with their suits cushioning them from the fall. He then quickly weaved over to the other copter and did the same there.

There was nothing he could do about the first group though. They were a fine meal for the renewed king of Aragami. After Mew moved the soldiers a little out of the way he faced the beast and saw its shadow hovering over him.

There it ignited its mouth and prepared to rain hell upon the planet, starting with him and Kairi. As he stood ready to fight, Mew heard a gun being loaded behind him and glanced over his shoulder. A soldier barely stood up and had the barrel aimed at his face.

Mew sighed then pulled the gun out of the soldier's hand in the blink of an eye. He broke it in half over his knee then looked at what he assumed was the man's face and said, "Priorities man, can't you see we're in the middle of a fight here?"

He then took a couple steps forward and sealed off the soldiers from the rest of the battle through a steel wall. Kairi got over to him before the way was cut off, wondering aloud, "Now what?"

Mew looked up at the beast's chest and saw that the inferno within was raging out of control. He knew getting in close was a fool's game now. And he was running out of time to come up with something before the Aragami launched its attack.

"..." He looked over at Kairi and started having this big, wide smile. She stared at him and stuttered, "W-Would you stop looking at me like that?"

He noticed throughout the battle that Kairi had no trouble getting in close and laying the smackdown on the Hannibal. So that gave him an idea.

"Kairi, I want you to cover me head-to-toe with your aura." He said with a milder smile.

"Huh?" Her response suggested she didn't seem to notice that detail but there was no time to explain.

"Just trust me alright? Oh! But make it a super cool looking armor!" Mew squeezed his fists with excitement and Kairi bluntly told him "No".

But then she closed her eyes, held her hands out, and gave Mew a full set of armor in seconds. It was hastily put together and looked like a bunch of blocks stacked on top of one another, but it was sturdy enough.

"And now..." Mew squeezed his blocky fists and turned, hunched over in line with the Hannibal's body, "We're going to wrap this up!"

The Hannibal thrust its head towards the sky and fired a supermassive orb of fire that unleashed many smaller fireballs upon their surroundings. It then dove without fear towards Mew with its claws outstretched and mouth wide open ready to devour.

Mew's knees crunched for the second before he lunged out into the air and bashed his fist across the Hannibal's face. The armored knuckles cracked from the strength Mew threw into them, but none of the Anti-Genesis Theorem leaked through.

"Sweet!" Mew's smile shone through at its brightest here. He then grabbed the monster by its neck and spun around, throwing it straight up into its own massive fireball. It broke and the explosion launched the beast straight back down.

Mew intercepted its descent and grappled his arms and feet around its chest. The raging inferno burned brightly against his body, daring him to hold on for as long as he could. But he would not only meet those expectations, he would _exceed_ them.

He hastened their descent, dragging them straight down in a violent twisting spiral of pain. But **HE** wouldn't be the one hitting the ground first. The Aragami's skull would, cracking the ground apart to the edges of this self-made container of stone.

Mew may or may not have snapped the beast's jaw at this point, he couldn't tell. After driving the Hannibal in like a nail he hopped off and watched it collapse on its back. He had another attack ready to go but first Kairi would have her go at the beast.

She summoned an elephant and gave it a few whips to increase its size. Then the mammoth mammal stampeded over and smashed its left foot repeatedly into the Hannibal's chest. The beast couldn't even roar in pain, but the rest of the body twitching painted a good enough picture over how it felt.

After Kairi had her fill and sent the elephant off Mew tore a thick rocky spike out of the ground and impaled it through the Hannibal's chest. But for good measure, there was still his finale.

He threw his arms aside, summoned a truckload of flames in them, then clapped his hands together to send the flames out in the form of a towering pillar. Undergoing the burning of a lifetime, the Aragami was roasted alive for a good fifteen seconds before its body could no longer handle it, and the whole thing turned into a fading plume of ashes.

And when it was finally gone, Mew let out a hefty sigh of relief and clapped his hands clean of soot. The armor around him faded, allowing him to plant his fists on his hips.

"Well that was fun but...We really got bigger fish to fry," He swiftly looked over at Kairi and told her, "Lets hurry and catch up with Riku! He'll probably need help putting out that hot head."

"R-Right!" Kairi nodded her head and the two of them took off over the wall and bolted straight North. But they didn't get very far before Riku got in their way. The three shared surprised looks of differing intensity but Mew was the first to try and speak up.

"Uhhh...Riku?"

Riku crossed his arms and quickly, quietly apologized, "I'm sorry brother...I lost sight of him."

"You lost sight of him?!" Kairi exclaimed in disbelief.

"Hold on," Mew remained calm for a moment and asked, "What happened? Did Lunis come back him up?"

"It wasn't Lunis..." Riku closed his eyes and muttered with a slight hint of dread in his voice, "It was Joe Dark."

Mew's eyes popped wide-open and he muttered, "Oh shit, you met him? ...Wait, you aren't supposed to know who he-"

"We can talk about that later," Riku briefly glared at Mew before turning around and keeping his gaze over his shoulder, "We need to hurry to Sancturia."

Riku and Kairi flew Northbound first, but Mew stuck behind with his arms crossed and some confused muttering to himself, "Joe Dark too? Why would **he** be involved?"

He shook his head and figured that might get answered on the way to the city of the Aurians. But as the three left the city behind they failed to notice the wreckage of a giant mechanical creature on the ground. This eight-legged blasphemous creation had a story to tell. But perhaps that could be told...

_Next Time: Vengeance Shared in Blood_


	9. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8: Unshackling the Hatred of the Past**

_40 minutes ago..._

The Phoenix of Destruction stood on the precipice of their former home. An abominable patch of land filled with dreadful memories of death and loneliness. Before them were their two pathetic clones and a wretched girl whose face dredged up some better-off-forgotten memories.

They had the Gaia Temporis secured in their right hand and a terrifying smile was plastered on their face. They enjoyed watching the one called "Riku" weigh in on how utterly he had been outsmarted, especially after they tried, but failed, to be a thorn in their side twice.

Stop time and cut off their heads. It would be as easy as skinning a deer. The girl, Kairi, even looked at them with frightful doe eyes.

...But that'd just be a waste of their time and effort. They could kill any one of them any time they pleased. They deserved a greater punishment for their existence.

"Oh we don't plan to kill you worthless copies yet. You will both live to suffer the end of everything, where you shall come up understand the pain and venom...of this wretched universe!"

The Phoenix of Destruction clamped the Gaia Temporis between their flaming fingers and stopped time around them. They saw, just for a moment, Riku attempting to stop their path with his blade.

They tucked the worthless stone into their pockets and hunched over slightly, taking a step off the porch. They turned back at the clean kept house and after a pause started to raise their hand towards it. The flames burning on their hand were reflected in their eyes, the crackle the only thing they heard.

"...Hmph..." The Phoenix of Destruction stayed their hand and turned away with neither eye open, "Now, where did that worthless flicker of sunshine go?"

An idea sprung into their head, though a vague one at that. With a mumble of "I wonder" they flew off within the frozen time towards the Northern part of the state.

Maintaining this state of immobility across their surroundings used to hurt their mind a lot. But now one could say that the Phoenix of Destruction's mind is so broken that there is nothing left _to_ hurt. They wouldn't agree with that, of course.

They kept going until they arrived at another city different from the one they left in ruins. "These ruinous unsuspecting fools..." They muttered to themselves as they landed down in the middle of a near-vacant street. The news of their battle in Seattle had already gotten here. There were only a couple cars around, and no sign of human life.

"That's a shame, really..." They closed their eyes and flashed a wide smirk as they let time resume at last, "We could have used some bodies to add fuel to the fire."

They set their body ablaze and the concrete at their feet started roasting with a white-hot glow. The glass in the buildings melted, and the metal twisted. They continued raising the flames around them higher and higher until they were over the building.

"Come out come out wherever you are...!" The Phoenix sang a twisted verse of malcontent as they gazed over their surroundings, waiting for the moth to be drawn to their flame.

"We only need to lure in one of them...But that empty-headed Sun God should be the easier of the two," The Phoenix reared their head back to the point of straining their neck and muttered, "Your pathetic children will be the perfect bait to-"

"Hmmm?" The Phoenix pause and puckered their lips curiously. A giant orb of black, blue and purple energy with the texture of glass grew wide-open in the sky. Through it, a massive mechanized monstrosity plummeted to the ground, their shadow darkening upon the Phoenix's body.

They creased out a grin as the machine dropped upon them. A shockwave penetrated the ground and uprooted thousands of pounds of stone and dirt into a circular tidal wave that destroyed the nearby buildings. From the dust rose a towering effigy of man made out of foreign metals. Pulsating lines of energy weaved between the blue metallic plates of this figure and down into its lower half.

But instead of normal legs, this machine's lower half was comprised of a spider-body, complete with eight rickety legs that were each sharp enough to cut into a mountain. The figure of man was blindfolded with parts of a cross puncturing out of their shoulders, waist and head. The remainder of the body was draped in thorns.

The Phoenix of Destruction stood at the edge of the slanted rubble directly in front of the titanic tarantula with their arms crossed. The machine stood upright at a height of two-hundred feet and length of seventy-five. It was the biggest war machine ever invented by this Earth..._But the Phoenix of Destruction had slain bigger_.

Though there was some mild intrigue going for this machine. For a brief moment, they thought aloud to themselves, "Curious...Is this what a 'Vortexian' looks like?"

"_So, you finally decided to show yourself again...Son." _The voice of a strong middle-aged man shook out loudly from the machine...And rattled the Phoenix of Destruction to the bone.

"..._You_." They unfurled their arms and watched the center of the machine's blindfold open up. A platform extended out and a sharply-dressed man with slick backed brown hair and gray tips walked out holding a cup of coffee in his right hand.

"How long has it been? Four years? Five?" Though the distance between them was vast, the Phoenix knew the man was smirking. And the machine had amplifiers to project his voice with ease.

"Really, its been too long, Judas Jeremiah!" They replied with a glistening smile of blissful madness. They lurched out and clawed the air behind them for a moment, firing off a burst of flame to launch themselves to the ground directly below the machine's shadow.

After stepping up to them with arms outstretched and their posture secure in its confidence, the Phoenix proclaimed, "Or have you finally cut the droll act and told the world your true name..._Prometheus_?!"

The man calmly cupped his mug in both hands to take a sip then remarked, "You got some spunk saying that given your position..Elemental Overlord."

The Phoenix of Destruction dropped their brows in a narrow glare and Prometheus looked back through the thin heat of his drink, "Or I guess you like to be called the Phoenix of Destruction now, right? Cause frankly...All I see is some ungrateful rebellious brat trying their hand at playing God."

"As if you have the right to judge **us**." The Phoenix responded with little more than a smile.

"Us?" Prometheus nearly spat out his drink laughing, "Good grief. And to think that you're my greatest success."

"Oh by all means, don't pat yourself on the back too hard..." The Phoenix's eyes started to glow, "We wouldn't want you to break your hand before we get the opportunity."

"The only time you've ever scared me is when you up and vanished out of nowhere. I don't know what drove you to come back and frankly I don't give a shit," Prometheus thrust his coffee mug down at the boy and proclaimed, "You belong to me son. Everything you own, everything you've gained, I'm taking it all back!"

"...We haven't had a good laugh in a long time but go on, keep talking." The Phoenix fluttered his hand up and snickered quietly to himself.

Prometheus leered his weary eyes down at the boy then put his mug down by his feet. He then gripped his hands behind his back and uttered, "You gained a little power and think that makes you the top dog. But you never would have had that power were it not for me!"

"Oh yes! All those days and nights of torture, treatments and torment were WORTH it for that little bit of power...Allow us to get on our hands and knees and KISS the ground you walk on, oh mighty Prometheus!" This all said with, of course, the thickest tone of sarcasm the Phoenix could muster.

"I gave you purpose! Without my intervention you would have been a worthless orphan crawling through the mud just to feed yourself!" Prometheus lashed back with a stern pose.

"Who do you think you're fooling?! You had always planned to kill our parents and snatch us away for your twisted experiments!"

"If they had denied you your greater purpose then yes, I would have," Prometheus responded calmly and with a smile, "I am altruistic man of the people. Everything I've done I've done out of a love for humanity."

"Manipulating the law to suit your needs...Hording advanced technology for yourself...Kidnapping orphans and the homeless? Such nobles goals from such a noble man..." The Phoenix ended this retort with a forced yawn.

"Humanity was on the verge of **self-destruction** twenty years ago! I may have used the law to my advantage but those changes gave us a second chance to do things right!" Prometheus stretched his arms towards his machine and raised his voice higher, "And that included the stagnation of technological development! We were advancing far too quickly as a race without understanding what made our current tech at the time good! But when the time comes this technology shall be made readily available to the public, of that I swear!"

"Well go on. And just how are you going to add your torturous endeavors into your 'altruistic' narrative?" The Phoenix egged him on with feigned curiosity.

"You understand so little..." Prometheus sneered back, "What purpose is there to orphans and the homeless? None! Because the higher powers of this world see them as garbage! Weak, fragile pieces of trash! But I have taken it upon myself to try and recycle this world's trash and give them a new purpose! Am I to be blamed for their inability to survive my experiments? Perhaps! But their failures paved the way to future successes, and YOU are the living proof of that!"

"Your path to success was paved with thousands of corpses Prometheus."

"But it was worth it!" Prometheus swung a finger at the Phoenix of Destruction and told him bluntly, "Because **I **learned how to make humanity take the next step forward! By successfully bonding Saiyan and human DNA, we will be able to grow stronger as a race, and stand up to all aliens who attempt to invade us...And someday, even the gods will cower to our might!"

"...Just another man with delusions of grandeur..." The Phoenix muttered while shaking his head.

"You laugh at me now _son_..." Prometheus clutched his hands together behind his back, "But that future is coming. It **is** inevitable."

He then reared his head back slightly and his tone got more firm, "The gods have worked to sabotage our progress since prehistoric days. They summoned the meteor! They created sin! They planted their agents into our offices to guide us down a dark path! But their karmic retribution shall be swift, it shall be _painful_ but most importantly...It shall be **just**."

"Give it a rest you vain old man..." The Phoenix of Destruction grabbed and rubbed his fingers along the side of his head while muttering in annoyance, "Everything you spout is just a cover-up for the fact that you want to be in full control of humanity's will."

"In an age of sin and distrust, **somebody** has to be the voice of reason." Prometheus retorted as if expecting the boy's answer from the very start.

"And you're that voice?!" The Phoenix pulled most of his body right back into a rancorous fit of laughter that could have been heard for a mile were anyone around to hear it. But when he stopped, he drooped his arms down towards the ground and lurched back upright.

"You really are insane Prometheus..." He muttered with a delightful smile.

"Hmph, coming from you I'll take that as a compliment." Prometheus replied with a smile.

"Oh no no no, you don't want to do that..." The Phoenix responded, "Because we're quite sane. And that is the only thing worth thanking you for."

"Everything else you said about benefiting humanity? We couldn't possibly give less of a shit if we tried. We just wanted to see you struggle in vain to justify the pain you inflicted upon this frail, parentless child all those years ago..." The Phoenix of Destruction lit up their hands then started to thrust them straight up, "BEFORE YOU DIE SCREAMING FOR MERCY!"

Prometheus stood still as a dark red force field flickered into existence before him and made the fireball fired at him disappear completely. The Phoenix felt a sudden ill sensation swell in their gut and without thinking about it hopped many feet away. The force field radiated around the titanic machine and let out a short-ranged pulse over the ruins.

"Heh...!" Prometheus smirked and picked his coffee mug up off the ground, "You want to play with the big boys son?! Then you better have come prepared!"

The platform he was on retreated into the head, but his voice continued to bellow out regardless, _"Because our 'mutual friend' and I have been preparing this machine to deal with you for years!" _

Once the way inside had been sealed off, the machine whirred to life once more. Its sharp, slender legs advanced upon the Phoenix's location, puncturing deep into the ground.

The Phoenix started to sweat but licked the droplets up in his tongue and smiled as wide as he could, "The Anti-Genesis Theorem..._What a surprise_..."

"And just where, pray tell, did you get the parts necessary to craft this ugly abomination?"

"_I utilized the parts of a couple machines crafted by a god from another dimension. You might recognize them by their names – Duon and Galleom!" _

"Oh, those two..." The Phoenix tilted his head and vaguely recalled dealing with something involving Subspace near the start of his career as an Elemental Overlord. He then scoffed and raised his head towards the face of the machine, "We aren't surprised that traitor Alpha was planning our demise from the start."

He started squeezing his fists tightly as the cursed waves of the Theorem washes over him repeatedly, dulling the feeling of the fire spewing out of his body. But he stood tall against the machine and proclaimed with a screech, "But there's nothing you can hide behind that will save your life now Prometheus! You have chosen your place to die!"

"_The only thing dying here is that ego of yours, son! You may have surpassed your humanity..." _The energy lines across the machine illuminated with a deep crimson hue. The parts of the cross pushed out, with glass panels underneath projecting a black "halo" out of the creature's back, _"But __**I**__ have surpassed the gods!"_

**MOBILE HEAVEN CALAMITY PMU-001: DIVINE TRAGEDY APOCRYPHA**

"_Now son...Its time for you to return HOME!" _Prometheus commanded one of the machine's legs to raise and thrust straight down upon the Phoenix's head.

They took off to the left as the leg hit the ground and dashed for the hind legs. The plates near the top of them opened up and a multitude of lasers started carving up the ground in the Phoenix's path.

They jerked back and had their chin grazed by one of the lasers. Rushing past with a smile he set himself ablaze, albeit a faint one, and tackled the hind leg with his entire body. The titanic machine was dragged back a few feet and was pulled upright.

The mechanical beast's frontal weight smashed down with resounding force and Prometheus commanded it to swing its back leg up. The Phoenix gripped tightly until it smashed the leg back into the ground, which threw them right off.

The Phoenix tumbled a bit but hopped onto their feet and laughed. They clapped their hands together, creating a shockwave of force to shove a mass of dirt and debris into the side of the machine.

"_Pathetic!" _Prometheus hollered as his lasers worked in conjunction to cut the debris down to atoms. With one short but mighty hop he then turned to the boy and opened the plates on its shoulders.

Dozens of missiles went flying straight for the Phoenix. They reached into their pocket and stopped time with the Gaia Temporis, then quickly flew at the missiles. They used a single swift punch on each to turn them around and when time resumed they crashed right back into the machine.

The multiple explosions staggered it back. Prometheus' response was a mere hum of, _"Interesting..."_

He got right back into the fight by forcing the machine to leap straight over to the boy. The Phoenix swung their arms out, gathered flames into their hands, then launched a rather pitiful fireball into the machine's chest. It succeeded in stopping it from landing on them, at the least.

"Hmph..." The Theorem was doing its job weakening them but there was not a sign of worry on their face. They continued to smile as they threw the full weight of their comparatively small body into the machine's abdomen and left a sizable dent in the frame.

The machine raised its front legs and alternated swinging them at the boy like they were a fly. The Phoenix swooped around them a few times, the fire building up slowly. Then he shot right up into the machine's underside with a roaring punch.

Crack did their skin and bones upon tasting the hard metal up close. But successful too was their attempt to throw the mighty god-killer off-balance.

"_D-Damn you!" _Yelled Prometheus as his machine was thrown halfway up into the air and started slowly falling onto its back.

But as the impact seemed inevitable, the legs twisted around and so too did the upper half of the body. It cleanly re-positioned itself upright and the worst the Phoenix did was put another dent into its frame.

"_Unfortunately for you, I came prepared!" _Prometheus then roared with confidence as he set off more lasers on its underside.

The energy weaved an inescapable web that snagged the Phoenix up underneath. They crossed their arms and flailed in pain as they attempted to ricochet out from under the machine.

"_Increasing output to 200%!" _Prometheus uttered the dreaded words that signaled the lasers firing even stronger than before. The lasers focused in on the Phoenix's location and pinned him straight to the ground.

"Hahaha...HAHAHAHA!" The Phoenix cackled as pain seared through the outer shell they called their flesh and rippled down to the bone. With their fingertips burrowed into the dirt and their blood boiling, the Phoenix suddenly shot forth a scream of ecstasy that manifested as a ripple of raw power.

The lasers were shoved back into the machine and fried many of them into disarray. From there the Phoenix pulled themselves free from the dirt and drained dry the ground they stood on to heal the baked flesh on their back.

The broken lasers were knocked off and replaced with a fresh set, as Prometheus proclaimed in a huff of human arrogance, _"I can do this all day boy."_

"Oh please, by all means..." The Phoenix twisted their head back over their shoulder and their eyes were a dark shade of red, "Make this at least _somewhat_ satisfying."

The new lasers fired down as strong as the last batch but the Phoenix grabbed the Gaia Temporis and used the stopped time to get out of there. He then drew his sword and stabbed it into the back of the beast before time resumed.

"_H-How?!" _Prometheus was thrown into a state of disbelief.

"That traitorous fungus knew nothing about how strong we've become!" The Phoenix declared. In one hand he ripped his blade through the thick metal. In the other hand he shot electricity to short-circuit the lasers coming off the machine's back.

Prometheus commanded the machine to jump and turn around a couple times in an attempt to throw the boyoff. Pointless. Utterly pointless.

The Phoenix reached the back of the machine's human half and was prepared to tear his way up to the head. Prometheus clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth and proclaimed, _"Damn it, I didn't want to waste this yet...!"_

The black halo's "shine" increased ten fold and scorched the Phoenix's retinas just by being near it. Retreating like a bat exposed to sunlight, they slammed their hands upon their eyes and hopped away along the back of the machine.

Prometheus whipped around again, hitting the boy mid-jump with the side of its body and smashing them a mile away through the ground.

The Phoenix got on its feet and stumbled a bit. "That hurt..." They were agonized to say. No amount of bravado could hide the damage the Anti-Genesis Theorem was doing to their durability.

They staggered to rise but had their full attention on the titanic tarantula as it started charging up. Its arms ripped off from its chest and split into six separate limbs beside it. Prometheus broadcast his voice to ensure the Phoenix would dread the coming attack.

"_Gravity flux capacitors at maximum output! Subspace generators 1, 2, 4, and 6 activated!" _Energy beamed out from the arms towards the Phoenix of Destruction. Oh woe would be to them, for their smug attitude dissipated in an instant when a powerful gravitation force forced him to stand still and not even reach for the Gaia Temporis.

"Y-You...dog!" The Phoenix screeched in surprise.

The black halo rose off the machine's back and centered itself as a ring around the sun in the sky, turning the light projected from it into a black beam centered upon the Phoenix's location. The energy burned into their skin and started to peel it off little by little.

"_Be my arrow of absolution to smite this heathen child!" _The machine's six-arms glowed with the same energy it had when it was summoned to this world. The ground twisted up at the Phoenix's feet. The surface of the world quaked.

_Judgment was coming. _

The black halo focused the energies of the sun through a filter of cursed rot unseen since the Dark Ages of humanity. Pouring all this energy into one arrow, Prometheus fired it with a mighty declaration of, _"CALAMITOUS FALL!"_

The arrow scorched the sky on its way to deliver swift retribution upon the Phoenix of Destruction. They stood in wait for its impact, their eyes bulging from their sockets. This was humanity's Hail Mary, the cry of all those who died today, and the vengeance Prometheus sought for their corpses.

"...Heh..." The Phoenix smirked as the arrow crashed into their body and unleashed a monstrous pillar of dark energies that ripped their way up into space. Dark lightning scarred the clouds. Fire rained down upon the land.

But Prometheus raised his mighty machine in triumph over the fading ashes and his separated parts returned to their natural place. But he was no fool.

"_I doubt that even that would have been enough to kill you. But your little temper tantrum..." _A cannon extends out from the chest, _"Is at an end, son."_

A large sphere of the Anti-Genesis Theorem is fired to contain the Phoenix of Destruction for good. From the thinning smoke a gloved hand shot forth and grabbed the sphere at its center.

"...Hehehehe!" The Phoenix's pale cackle filled the air. With the smoke at its last breath, Prometheus' machine started to stumble back at his command.

"_What the HELL...?" _And what was left in its place was a hollowed out expanse of the Earth with the Phoenix standing atop a very, very thin pillar of stone.

The Phoenix of Destruction squeezed his hand tightly and the Anti-Genesis Theorem was broken like glass. He was unharmed. There wasn't a scratch to his name.

"_Impossible! That Theorem is your weakness! How are you still standing?!" _Prometheus demanded to know.

"You should know...Prometheus," The Phoenix started to reach for the Gaia Temporis with a big smile on their face, "_You _made us this way after all!"

They stopped time and the next thing Prometheus knew he was unconsciously starting to retreat. He didn't even get a step back before the weight of his machine was thrown off balance in the front. The Phoenix had ripped a leg right off and raised it before the monstrosity's chest.

"That pathetic formula has been thrown at us time after time again!" The Phoenix effortlessly swung the leg like a sword through the machine's midsection, cleaving the man from the spider, "But we are more than just our elements! Our strength has grown through the many battles we have survived!"

The effigy of man started to drop, but the Phoenix would not let this end on gravity's terms. They rose to the head of the god-killer and swung the leg over their head.

"You had lost to me the moment I left this shitty world, Prometheus! NOW PERISH!" The leg was slammed down, impaled through the center of the head like a nail. The two halves of the machine were put make together, but with the upper half now crunched down and the spider segment squashed flat as a pancake.

The Phoenix dropped to the ground and stared down the wreckage of this titan with a grin. Thousands of tons of metal laid at their feet, and the man piloting it should have been a minuscule splat of blood somewhere inside.

But demons never truly die easy. That wouldn't be satisfying. No. Through means the Phoenix could not explain, Prometheus' body had fallen out of the machine and landed on the ground right before the wreckage.

"...Well now, what's this?" The Phoenix cocked a Cheshire's grin and watched the man plant his feet on the ground and stand upright with one hand gripping his left arm tightly. His neat appearance was in shambles, with the bangs of his hair thrown over his right eye, which was now filled with blood.

"Ha...haa...ha!" Prometheus gasped for air. A metal rod was stuck through his right knee. His body covered in soot.

"You just refuse to die..." The Phoenix happily wiggled their fingers around, itching for another round.

"...Don't get all high and mighty just because you beat a machine, boy!" Prometheus squeezed his hand around his shirt and tore it right off. For the first time in a long while the Phoenix felt a reason to do nothing but look at their opponent in surprise.

Prometheus was ripped underneath all those fancy clothes. But there seemed to be a good, if unnatural reason why. His arms were no longer that of a human's. The skin was green and the pink muscle fibers were sticking out prominently. Strapped to his chest were two cylindrical generators that pumped energy through his thick, bulging blood veins.

He then ripped the metal rod out of his leg, where the flesh would quickly stitch back together good as new. With the rod tossed aside the man clutched his fists and pointed himself at the Phoenix of Destruction with a cocky grin.

"Take it all in boy! This is what true power looks like!" And it was positively disgusting. Yet he took that in as a fact of pride. Even the Phoenix of Destruction looked nauseated from glaring at the man's patchwork appearance.

"Namekian DNA for regeneration! Infinite Energy Generators so I never tire!" Prometheus squeezed his fists and hunched over. His muscles expanded ever slightly as he strained his body.

"And this...IS JUST THE START!" The air calmed around him. A circle formed at his feet, separating his power from everything else. His hair began to rise as his power exploded forth as a golden aura around his body.

He screamed his lungs dry of air as the hair thickened and turned golden. With a short-cut he didn't have much to gain from them spiking up. His muscles began to grow as the hair continued to rise, adding more spikes along with blue electricity in his aura. The planet started to tremble as the man's hair grew obscenely long down his back, ending at his waist. His eyebrows vanished too, for some reason.

The Phoenix of Destruction merely stood there as Prometheus displayed the full extent of his power to him. And when the man stood tall, his power shoved the corpse of his great creation a hundred feet back. He raised his hand loftily towards the boy and flashed a blood-drenched smile.

"I have you to thank for this achievement boy. The unification of all these powers wouldn't have been possible without the things I did to you..." He clutched his hands and a shockwave ripped through the ground for half a mile.

"But this required me to use the last of the Saiyan DNA I had harvested. To continue my campaign against the gods I will need to harvest your body for more DNA. And I think I will take your Elemental Overlord powers and add them to the next generation of soldiers as well!"

The Phoenix of Destruction narrowed their eyes, causing Prometheus to scoff, "Don't look so angry at me boy. You were only given some of the power. I kept all the best stuff for myself! Because as I told you, humanity needs a leader...And what better man is there than one who is willing to sacrifice what they are now...To become something even greater?!"

"And I haven't even pushed the limits of this power...!" Prometheus looked at his trembling hands and growled in a deep tone of voice, "This is merely Super Saiyan 3! I could still achieve 4! Or Blue! The limits of this power are unexplored!"

He faced the Phoenix once again and proclaimed, "You have become strong, that I'll grant...But I will always be your superior, boy! For your hatred is nothing compared to mine! My existence has been that of pure spite since long before you were born! My rage will douse a path through hellfire, dull the pain of a thousand tortures, and eventually forge a mountain of corpses reaching to the heavens! And once I have dragged the gods to the mortal plain, humanity will stand victorious over their corpses, and reclaim their dest-"

"GHHH!" Prometheus lurched over with blood spilling forth from his mouth. The Phoenix of Destruction stood before him with their arm extended to their chest. With only one finger, a pinky to be precise, the destroyer had penetrated Prometheus' chest and heart.

Prometheus' muscles started throbbing uncontrollably and he became hard of breathing. He hunched over, clawing one hand atop the Phoenix's shoulder but failing to even make him budge.

Prometheus tried to raise his head. Half the Phoenix's face was shrouded in shadow, leaving only his grin present.

"With just this one finger I could squish this planet like a grape if I wanted to..." The Phoenix leaned into the man's ear to whisper, "You were always nothing to me...With or without this stolen power."

"Ha...hahaha!" Prometheus finally gripped his hand onto the Phoenix's shoulder and pulled his eyes up to theirs, "I...worked so hard to create the bane of the gods...To think...That my expectations would have been exceeded so much..."

The Phoenix's teeth creaked as they smiled, "You poor naive fool...There are things out there far, far worse than your pathetic gods. We will kill them...we will kill the gods...and then everything else will be reduced to ash."

The Phoenix squeezed their hand around the man's neck and he let out a frightful gasp, "You made a great puppet and you didn't even know it. Thank you...for creating **us**."

"Haaaaaa...!" Prometheus' eyes shook as blood filled them to the brim, "I-I...am...Prometheus...Deliverer...of Mankind's First Flame...My will is...Forev-"

With one pull the Phoenix pulled the man's head off, spine included, while also hooking their pinky into his heart and tearing it out. The blood dripped onto them like a cozy warm shower, and they basked in it for a few moments as Prometheus body collapsed onto its back.

At long last, the Phoenix of Destruction had exorcised their mortal foe from his earthly coil. No longer would his existence give them torment throughout many sleepless nights. And what did they have to say to celebrate this occasion?

"Well, that was a fun little distraction..." They let the blood soak into their skin and tucked their hands into their pockets. Turning away from the two corpses they looked up to the sky and muttered, "But that doesn't appear to have lured the fledgling sun god to us...Just where could they have gone? ...Hmm?"

The Phoenix looked up and saw those pesky two clones of theirs along with that annoying reminder of the past. They arched their brows down and muttered, "Caught up already...What a pain."

Nevertheless they figured listening in to their conversation through some clever manipulation of the wind. One sentence was all they needed to hear, "We need to hurry to Sancturia."

"Sancturia...?" The Phoenix lowered their head. The three above them flew off, unknowingly leave behind a target of pursuit to grin from cheek to malicious cheek.

"_Of course_..." With utter silence the boy reached into their pocket, and used the Gaia Temporis to warp away...

_Next Time: Darkness in Sancturia_


	10. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9: Attack on Sancturia**

The trio continued their valiant trek up North. It wasn't hard to follow Solaris' via the burning path he left in the planet's surface. The hard part was, at least on Mew's end, not stopping every step of the way to help out the people struggling down there.

Him having his head down a lot did not escape Riku's notice however, "You wish you could do something to help, right brother?"

"Of course!" Mew thrust his head up with a mix of bitterness on his face, "But I get it y'know? If we stopped to help every person in danger, more people are going to die in the meantime."

"Right," Riku bobbed his head in agreement then looked to the ground and drew his brother's attention down, "And its not as though humanity can't fend for themselves."

It was true. Firemen were hard at work hosing down the spreading fires at the edge of the burning chasm Solaris seared in his wake. And there were other people volunteering to put out the flames however they could. It put a worried smile on Mew's face to see some kids using their water squirters to help out too.

He wanted this struggle to reflect positively in Kairi's mind and turned at her to say, "See that Kairi? Humanity's scared, but they're still putting up a good fight just like they always have!"

She stared down before suddenly blinking a few times and sputtering out a "H-Huh?" She had been snatched away by her thoughts for a moment. Weakly, she then spoke back, "Yeah..."

Mew glided in a little closer and patted her softly on the back, "I'm saying that your people will fare just fine...At least long enough for us to get there and put out hot-and-bothered's flames!"

Though the frail truth of the matter was that Solaris got a good lead on the three of them and Mew and Riku were stuck sticking to Kairi's pace. They had already cleared the Canadian border a few minutes ago but the North Pole was still a while's away.

Mew looked into Kairi's eyes and saw melancholy in them, so he backed off for now and let her be. But right as he did so, she asked, "Who is Joe Dark?"

"Ummm..." Mew wasn't quite expecting to hear that. He tapped away at his chin to think about it then turned to Riku. Before even a breath escape his brother crossed his arms and got to work.

"He's the current incarnation of the Dark King. I would assume you know who that is, right?"

Kairi faintly nodded her head. By now she'd run into too many dangerous folk to really care about the addition of one more.

"Well...Joe Dark seems to have a particular grudge against Alex Whiter and anyone like him since before any of us were the Elemental Overlord."

Mew shrugged the whole thing off and jokingly remarked, "But each of us have kicked his ass once by now. Its kinda like a rite of passage I guess?"

"You said he hates Alex Whiter...So he's from this planet too?" Kairi picked up on that surprisingly fast given her mopey mood.

"I'm not 100% sure of that but probably? I've never seen a human with such a bad case of red eye though." Mew replied.

Kairi bit her lower lip slightly then said with a scowl, "His home's in danger and all he wants to do is settle a grudge? Asshole..."

Mew scratched the side of his head and muttered, "Can't say he doesn't have his priorities in check..."

"I don't think that's the case this time," Riku spoke up, "When I encountered him his eyes were...hollow. Almost like he was being controlled."

"..." Mew stared blankly at Riku then started rubbing the back of his head, grunting out a sigh of irritation, "Well great, now I'm just gonna have to assume Justek's capable of mind-control cause otherwise the only other option is that ANOTHER bad guy's involved in all this!"

There wasn't any gentle way to put that in front of Kairi, so Mew sped through it fast, hoping she wouldn't hear most of it. When he was done Riku chimed in with the tally so far, "Solaris, Lunis, Justek, the Phoenix of Destruction...And now Joe Dark."

"Not to mention those strange creatures we fought back in the city. Who knows how many of them are out there?" Mew added.

"We're keeping on Solaris' trail but we have no idea where the others are." Riku muttered, thinking deeply to himself about something right after.

"Well I think we'll find Alex when we find Solaris. He's never one to turn down a fight."

"Its weird...No matter how hard I've tried, I've been unable to sense Solaris' power." Riku sounded perturbed by this.

"Yeah neither have I. Kairi?" Mew turned but she silently shook her head.

"I _want _to say I might know why?" Mew proposed with a lack of certainty to his voice. He then looked at Kairi once again and mentioned, "You're probably not going to like what I'm about to say though."

Kairi tilted her head to face him and Mew took in a deep breath to say, "I think Solaris and Lunis have God Ki."

Mew winced one eye shut and forced a smile out. Kairi narrowed her gaze and a bit of her spunk resurfaced just to say, "What is with you and Dragon Ball?"

"I know I know but I'm being serious here Kairi. Nothing else really makes any sense!" Mew exclaimed confidently.

"I'm willing to vouch with my brother on this," Riku chimed in, believing his word would mean something to Kairi, "But brother, I hope you realize the implication of what you just said."

"...Yeah," Mew hesitantly replied, "It means we don't know how strong either of them are."

"But that's alright. Cause we got a trump card." Mew cocked his head towards Kairi with a smile.

She looked straight ahead then more towards the sky. There was a flock of birds flying their way and she commented, "The wildlife is being scared off."

Mew and Riku narrowed their eyes up towards the sky. The birds weren't making any sounds, not even a single "Caw!" to show their distress. So when the birds suddenly started dropping towards them, there was no hesitation for either of them to draw their blade.

"Those aren't real birds!" Mew proclaimed as the fiendish fowls made of foggy darkness spread their four-winged forms in the shape of a wide "X". They bolted towards them faster than lightning's descent and Mew had to use his elbow to shove Kairi and give her time to react.

One of the bird's wings sliced across his cheek as it passed. He had time though to turn around and cut the fowl down the back with the tip of his blade. The bird went hurtling out of the sky and disassembled before hitting the ground.

"Heads up Riku!" Mew had the perspective to say, and his quick warning gave his brother time to turn around and retaliate. The two of them flew backwards as the flock curved up into the sky, spinning around before drilling their way back down to their location.

Mew and Riku readied their blades to fight back. But a large bird made of aura swiftly came by, tearing its way straight through the entire flock with its sharp wing span. It then rose into the sky and disappeared letting loose a screech.

Mew lowered his weapon and slowly faced Kairi, who turned off her Beast Tamer Drive but turned on a very furious look in her eye.

"Nice one Kairi!" Mew said with a hearty thumbs-up.

She glared at him, for good reason he knew, but then started turning back around while saying, "These mobs aren't getting in our way! We're almost-"

By the time she finished turning her energy looked instantly depleted. She finished her sentence with a whisper of "There..." and then fell into a lull of silence.

Mew and Riku turned to see what she was seeing. The frozen waters of the North Pole were bubbling. The once hidden city of Sancturia was spurting out flames. And more of those strange creatures were being flown in, carried in on platforms hauled by those birds the three just encountered.

Mew quickly looked at Kairi and saw her trembling as the fire reflected in her eyes. She gripped her staff tightly and after shedding a single tear flew straight for the city. Mew swung his hand out but Riku put his own on his wrist to lower it.

"This isn't the time for that brother. Lets go." Riku sternly told him.

Mew nodded his head then swung his blade over his shoulder and darted for Sancturia with Riku at his side. Before they passed through the barrier they cut down the birds and caused their passengers to drop into the ocean.

But when they got inside it proved to be a minor inconvenience for their enemies. Hundreds of those creatures had already invaded the city and were flying and stampeding about, picking away at the Aurians and their homes.

They landed and Riku took a moment to survey the new scenery. Mew stepped ahead of him and poked his head up trying to make out Kairi in the madness.

"_She must've gone straight for her house..." _The city was too large to try and play hide-and-seek right now. But Mew had enough faith in her strength to not make finding her a huge priority.

"They're getting massacred out there..." Riku commented in a somber tone. Mew saw plenty of Aurians trying to put up a fight, but not a single one of them could land a hit on these creatures to save their lives...Which was admittedly a terrible way of putting it.

Mew braced his sword by the handle and started turning to the left. Riku wondered aloud rather bluntly, "I thought these people were warriors like Kairi?"

"Haaaaaa...Riku?" Mew stepped up as the maturer of the two and set his brother's priorities straight, "I'm going to clear out the left side of the city, you clear out the right. If you find Solaris, then raise your power, otherwise meet me at the center of town. Got it?"

Riku glanced over his shoulder then cocked a proud smile and swung his arm down, sword floating past the palm. "Got it" He affirmed with his narrowly fixated on the enemy swarm close by.

"Lets get 'em outta here!" Mew yelled before dashing to the left.

Mew laser focused on the closest creature, which had a sludge based composition unlike the rest of them. It vaguely resembled a toad and had three tongues lashed out at the ground, which created puddles to extend the length of them and allow it latch onto the legs of three other Aurians.

The Aurians were being dragged into the sludge puddles and were inches away from it when Mew jumped and threw his blade down into the toad's head. This caused it to disassemble like the other creatures, whereas Mew then landed atop the handle of his blade and crossed his arms with a smile.

"Hey guys! Really hasn't been that long has it?"

Two of the Aurians were silent, the third spoke up with a panicked gasp of relief, "Oh thank god you're here! We really needed the back-up!"

Mew kicked flipped off his blade and by doing so made it spin around in the air, taking out a couple of those birds. He then slowly walked up to the Aurians and shrugged his hands up, "Yeah but you know I can't be everywhere at once right?"

Mew's sword coolly dropped into his right hand and he hung it over his shoulder. One of the other Aurians held up their weapon, a short sword with a tassel at the end, and wondered, "B-But how are we supposed to fend off these creatures on our own? They're so strong!"

Mew blinked slowly once then tapped his blade up against his back. He then spun around and cut down some horned creature that tried charging at him, barely having time to register it. All the while he asked of the trio, "Ok you three! Get out your weapons, quick!"

He turned and scanned them over one-by-one, "Ok so we got a short sword, a hammer and..."

He stared blankly down at a glock in the rightmost person's hands, then at the person's face. They crinkled out a wry smile and shrugged their shoulders. Mew slowly backed away and stuttered, "N-No this is fine, this is good! You guys are equipped to handle this!"

"We are?" The three said.

"Yeah!" Mew had to tell it like it is but do so quickly, "A short sword's good for quick attacks which'll be useful against the slower ones. A hammer can match the stronger ones if you hit them right. While a gun is useful for shooting down the flying ones when they dive at you."

"Just make sure to power up your weapons with aura. Those creatures don't seem to have good enough defenses against that!" Without receiving thanks for his advice Mew ran past them. They seemed to hold their weapons a little more confidently than before he had arrived. But just to be safe he turned around and yelled, "You guys got this! Oh! And pass on this advice to anyone else you run across!"

"_That should help out a lot. But I can't slack off...!" _

While mowing down the crowd of enemies Mew faintly heard some children crying on his right. He dashed straight towards the sounds and as they got louder it became easier to see them. And with them was a familiar face – Bobby, the rather unsung hero of the battle against Gravitus.

All the kids he was watching over couldn't have been any older than five. They weren't capable of fighting. They couldn't even throw a punch. Bobby was their only line of defense and for as firmly as he held his rapier and stood his ground, his body looked like it was in a terrible shape.

"S-Stay behind me!" He said, gritting his teeth against a truly titanic monster.

This creature was the biggest so far standing at twenty-feet tall and being ten feet long, including the tail. It looked like a dragon made of bones with its rot seeping into the ground. But when children were in danger, Mew was more than ready to step up and be their knight.

"Hey bone breath! Eat this!" Mew's boisterous claim to fame got the beast's attention just in time for Mew to go flying in and punch it straight in the side of its jaw. It staggered the beast away from the children. Mew landed and felt some sweat festering on his skin.

"_Ugh, this ugly one's got a stronger dosage of the Theorem than the others..." _Nevertheless he threw up his dukes and ran at the beast, throwing a punch straight at its chest with all his might.

Just then a second head popped out from the chest and bit its fangs into Mew's wrist. Mew grit his teeth and ripped his fist right out, breaking the fangs in the process. A lot of blood started dripping down his hand until he could slap the other one down and cauterize the wounds.

"Well that's a nasty trick..." He squeezed his hand onto his wrist and started raising it to draw his sword. The twin-headed dragon opened both its mouths to unleash a beam of darkness from them, forgoing the expected wait time.

Mew flinched. A wall of aura appeared in his path, and the two energy blasts were bounced back into the dragon to take it out. Mew looked to his right and saw Bobby holding up a very shaky hand. It plopped down to his side and he looked hard of breath.

"You...you alright Mew?" Bobby said on friendly terms.

Mew shook his bitten hand with impressive vigor then raised it up high above his head, clenching it into a fist, "Yeah seems fine to me!"

"But you..." He took that hand and pointed it at Bobby.

"Look like shit?" Bobby sighed and tried his hardest to stand up in front of the kids, who were trembling something fierce. He then took a couple steps forward and whispered, "W-What's going on man? Fifteen minutes ago some nut job invaded Sancturia, called us all traitors, then bailed for the Pyramid while leaving his army behind..."

Taking that info in Mew could only respond, "Even I don't know but...You said someone went towards the Pyramid?"

Bobby raised a hand over his head and murmured, "He was this tall, head looked like it was on fire?"

"Yeah that's the guy we're after!" Mew exclaimed, "By the way, have you seen Kairi come this way?"

Bobby quietly nodded and mentioned, "Last I saw she was tearing through dozens of those creatures on a one-women warpath to the North."

"_So I was right on the money," _Mew pumped his fist against his chest a couple times to Bobby's bewilderment. Then he looked at the boy and told him, "Leave the fight to us! You should take the kids further South, it should be cleared out by now."

"Yeah...I'll get right on that." Bobby responded. After sticking around a little bit to see Bobby reassure the kids, Mew hastened North towards the Aurora household, taking down any stragglers he could find.

On the opposite side of town Riku was dealing with all the creatures without taking a break. He glided around to throw the thoughtless beasts off-guard then cut them down with quick swings of his blade. His mental command over his blade sliced through the birds and punctured through entire lines of enemies on the ground.

After cutting through the bull-headed monsters his sword stuck into the chest of one of those twin-headed dragons, where its second head came out and devoured the blade whole. Riku slid to a stop then whipped his right hand to the left.

The blade broke free from the beast's skeletal gut, where Riku continued to whip his hand around to puncture the beast. His blade was a blur, rending the beast in the blink of an eye. He then looked around and saw that the immediate area was cleared out.

"Their numbers are limited, but they aren't the biggest threat here..." Riku closed his eyes and concentrated throughout Sancturia. He could feel his brother and Kairi fighting hard, and another high power in the center of town. But it felt nothing like the Phoenix of Destruction...

"Hey aren't you that guy who fought Gravitus?"

Riku's attention was disrupted by some guy asking him that question. He tilted his head to the right slightly and wasted little time on an answer, "No, I'm his brother."

"Oh," The person sounded mildly disappointed and their appreciation after was very neutral, "Well...thanks a lot dude."

"Don't mention it," Though Riku didn't care too much. His main concern was to tell them and the people around him, "But you need to get somewhere safe. This isn't your battleground."

"Safe?" The Aurian looked around, swung their arms out, and proclaimed, "Where?! Where is safe?!"

Riku looked around and saw so many houses either burnt down or destroyed. This was the only home these people knew, so for him to say that...

"...Sorry." He closed his eyes and muttered that out in a sincere tone.

He then felt his brother's power rise slightly and noticed him stopping all of a sudden close to where Kairi was. "Is that where...?" Not knowing who he might've been fighting, Riku hastened to his brother's side and continued to take down more of those creatures.

Around that moment Mew finished off a crowd aiming to target a single house and instantly knew, "Ok yeah, this is the one."

He put his sword at his back and valiantly swung open the cloth door to take a peek inside. "Hey Aur-!" He stopped and saw the gal in question sitting comfortably on the couch with a heavy bottle of liquor twirling around in her right hand.

"...Is this _really _the time for this?" Mew said, utterly baffled.

Auris sat upright against her couch and cocked a small smile as she remarked, "You really need to learn not to keep a lady waiting, Mew."

Mew clamped his hand around the door frame and was desperately fighting the urge to tell her off. But instead he lightly whacked the door with an open fist and said, "Could you _at least_ have given us a warning about this?"

"Who's to say I even could have?" Auris cryptically replied while taking a deep sip of liquor. Mew narrowly glared at the side of her head and that seemed to make her put the bottle down.

"And besides, I'm not the lady in question..." She said in a more firm, motherly tone.

Mew perked his brows up and said, "So Kairi already ran by here?"

"Yes. She headed straight for the Pyramid once I told her that Gabriel was fighting Solaris."

"So you DO know-!" Mew paused with a fluttering of his eyelashes then started pulling away from the door.

"Brother."

"AH!" Mew turned around and Riku was standing a foot away, his stare as cold as ice. He then planted a hand on his chest to calm down and say, "D-Didn't think I'd run into you again so quickly Riku!"

"What are you doing?" Riku said, mildly confused.

"Ummm..." Mew hastily turned aside and parted the door. Auris turned and waved at them with a close-eyed smile.

"Riku, Auris. Auris, Riku!" Mew swung his hand towards them both in tune with their names.

"Its a pleasure to finally meet you Riku." Auris said.

"Same to you?" Riku wasn't too confident in his reply and started a prolong stare into her eyes. His brows started to arch and her smile turned wily.

Mew firmly patted Riku on the shoulder and told him, "Get to know each other later! We gotta make haste for the Pyramid!"

"...Alright." Riku slowly drew himself back out of the house, keeping his eye on Auris as she reclaimed her liquor bottle and slumped back into her couch.

"Be careful at the Pyramid you two. You may run into some unexpected company." She whispered as the curtain door closed.

"What?" Riku was once again confused as he ran by Mew's side towards the Pyramid.

"Brother, did you ever mention me when around her?" Riku's blatant observation over what transpired caught Mew in a situation he wasn't expecting to be in.

"N-No...?" Mew squeezed out an answer through a tight grin and Riku looked at him but immediately let it go while saying, "Ugh alright fine I'll tell you, but you gotta promise not to tell Kairi ok?"

Riku's change in expression showed he wasn't very happy or eager to hear what his brother had to say now but he nevertheless valued the weight of this promise by nodding his head.

"So full disclosure? Auris is clairvoyant."

"She can see the future?" Riku's eyes perked up.

"Yeah though she's kinda..._particular_ about it." To put it loosely.

"...I see." Riku turned his head away and didn't utter another word.

"_Oh, that was easier than I expected!" _Mew let out a sigh of relief and focused on making it to the Pyramid.

Once they were there they could feel the ground trembling. A battle was raging on deep inside, and Mew prayed they weren't coming in for the climax. Riku kept up with him throughout their journey across the first couple of floors. As they hit the staircase going to the fourth floor however, they found Kairi starting to make her way up it.

"Kairi!" Mew hollered, hoping to hold her back long enough for them to finish catching up.

She turned around momentarily with her face pale and pupils shrunk and said, "Y-You guys!"

"Gabriel's just up ahead right?" Mew only paused to say that and get the confirmation nod from her. He then quickly gave a thumbs-up and said, "Then lets go save him and put a stop to Solaris' warpath!"

She steeled her gaze with determination and the three finished their climb to the next floor. The beautiful cherry blossom garden was flooded with flames, the bright embers filling the ceiling with smoke and ash.

"Oh man..." Mew solemnly withdrew his usual cheeriness to mourn the lose of this garden. The flames were forced their way by a shockwave of raw power booming out from the center of the room. Mew stepped forth shielded Kairi from them with his body, but some of the hotter ash got in his eyes and made it hard to see.

There were two shadows dancing in the flames. One stood over the other, like an ogre besting a samurai in a tragic take on an old folktale, and beat his fists down onto their shoulders like they were parts of a drum. Gabriel's stern grunt of pain could be heard through the flames, and as another shockwave rocked the floor the man dropped to his knees.

Kairi picked up her feet and ran through the flames covering her advance with a shield of aura before her arms. Mew and Riku ran after but she made it through in the nick of time.

"BASTARD!" She yelled, drawing Solaris eyes skyward as she jumped at him and prepared to break his skull with her staff.

"Oh come on!" The Sun God yelled as he jumped back and watched the ground break upon her staff.

She stood and thrust the weapon at his face with Gabriel knelt at her back, "Are you alright Gabriel?!"

"K-Kairi...?" Gabriel stuttered weakly as he put one hand on his chest and let out a very agonized grunt. Mew and Riku were quick to get to by Kairi's side and cross their swords at him.

Mew looked over his shoulder and knew right away what ailed the samurai, _"His chest still hasn't healed up..."_

"Geez...Damn it all you old coot!" Solaris swung his fist at Gabriel and was unabashedly rude towards him, "You can't even give me a good fight anymore and now you called for back-up?!"

He clawed his hand up by his face and set it ablaze with a pillar of fire towards the ceiling. His eyes turned vein-y likes a dragon's as he proclaimed, "You're making my revenge against your traitor ass so goddamn flaccid!"

"Leave him alone!" Kairi yelled, refusing to take anymore of the Sun God's shit. She nudged Riku aside with her staff and stepped forth to oppose Solaris with her grit and anger alone, "What did Sancturia ever do to you?!"

"What did they do?!" Solaris narrowed his gaze and lashed his hand down, setting off a wave of fire at the ground to repel Kairi back, "It'd be easier to tell you ants what they _didn't _do!"

Kairi's expression didn't budge in the slightest. For once, Solaris seemed to take interest in the people he deemed beneath his notice. With a cocky smile he said, "You know what, that fire in your eye reminds me a lot of the old hag who used to look after us. Maybe _you'd _actually make a decent opponent."

Solaris started to hunch over as fire wreathed his goliath frame, "It'd certainly be a better use of my time than entertaining this washed up sack of green shit."

Gabriel started coughing up blood at that moment. With his strength to stand dwindling he used that energy to warn Kairi, "Don't...underestimate his power...He is..."

"Haven't you said enough old man?!" Solaris barked in a fit of rage, "God you wouldn't believe him! He did nothing but chew me out the whole time we fought! And look where it got you!"

Mew stepped forth a little more and put his sword up near the tip of Kairi's staff. He then looked Solaris in the eyes and told him, "Sorry pal, but we're a package deal. You mess with one of us, you mess with all of us!"

"You should have just kept running and never looked back. This is where you die, Solaris." Riku added.

"Uuuughh...!" Solaris groaned like he had a mild stomachache then stared up at the ceiling and yelled, "Father! I could really use some back-up to weed out these flies!"

Mew scoffed and joked aloud, "First thing he does with his back to the wall is yell for daddy to come bail him out. Some Sun God you turned out to be."

"Ah will you can it loser?!" Solaris crossed his arms and waited for a dark rift to open up beside him. Joe Dark crawled out of it with dagger already in hand.

Mew recoiled slightly. His first experience with the reborn Dark King wasn't exactly his fondest memory. For the demon in his head however, it was a delightful recollection.

"_Hard to believe that wannabe king is still alive after the thrashing __**we**__ gave him. Hohoho, and he still retains the power of darkness without that soul to bind it...How very interesting."_

Mew ignored "D." and looked Joe Dark straight in his eyes. He did indeed bear a hollow stare, and though they were looking his way Mew didn't feel any emotion coming from them.

"Alright you sad puppet, whaddya got for me?" Solaris asked.

Joe Dark raised his other hand up from behind his back and gave the Sun God the same type of device that summoned the Corrosive Hannibal. With that in hand Solaris cracked a smile and proclaimed, "Thanks father! I love it!"

Mew withdrew his blade for the time being and pointed at Joe Dark. With his quick wit he came up with something that was sure to grab the Dark King's attention, "Come on Joe Dark, two of your least favorite people are standing right here! What's the matter, got cold feet?"

Joe Dark creaked his head towards the center of their little formation and in the blink of an eye he broke right through it, bowling them over.

Upon landing Kairi heard a gasp for air and looked up to see Joe Dark throwing Gabriel unconscious with a punch to the chest, and promptly hauling him over his shoulder.

"Gabriel!" Kairi was the first back on her feet and took a swing at the back of Joe Dark's head. The Dark King turned and used the samurai as a shield, dissuading further action.

Kairi bit her teeth and watched as Joe Dark suddenly bolt for the stairs down, the flames doing little to stop him.

"Go after him!" Mew proclaimed as he got up and gave Kairi a gentle shove on the back. As she looked back he had already turned back to face Solaris with blade drawn, "Riku and I can handle this poser!"

"...Ok!" Kairi steeled her gaze and went running after the Dark King. Mew and Riku stood shoulder-to-shoulder and drew their weapons at Solaris.

"Aww man, why'd the interesting one have to go and leave me with you two dead weights?!" Solaris stamped his foot down and rolled his eyes.

"Hey maybe you haven't gotten the hint bud, but the two of us are Elemental Overlords too!" Mew proclaimed.

"Big whoop! I control fire, but I don't go around calling myself the Flame Overlord!" Solaris waved his pointer finger at them both and yelled, "You ain't nothing compared to the big guy from back then! Now HE would've been a great opponent!"

"Now the Phoenix of Destruction?!" Solaris widened his grin to almost orgasmic levels of joy, "I'm gonna cause a ruckus so big it'll draw that monster outta hiding and give me the fight of my life!"

Solaris raised the orb above his head and proclaimed, "But first, you two need to scram! So magic orb, bring me someone really nasty to eviscerate them to pieces!"

Riku widened his eyes and his blade sped out of his head straight for the orb. Solaris suddenly threw his arm behind him, crushed the orb, and laughed in Riku's face by proclaiming, "TOO SLOW!"

He used the orb to summon a massive rift. It was bigger than the last one, and just barely reached the ceiling. The heavy clang of metal rung throughout the room as a bipedal mech walked out. It was a towering mass and black and gold parts too mechanically detailed to describe down to the letter. The most important features were its long bladed fingers, jet engine abdomen, the laser cannon on its back, and its face. Its face had a damaged black jaw with spikes protruding three up both sides of its "cheeks", the last of which connected to a pair of bent blood red horns. Red energy flowed through the machine, it too resembling blood.

The machines immediate response was to observe its surroundings and declare in an echoing, gravelly voice, _"What is the meaning of this?! This is not Sword Valley!"_

"Oh, so this time its Metal Face..." Mew mumbled to himself. Though the "robot's" peak hearing caught on to what he said.

"_Eh? I recognize that voice..." _With a nasty turn of tone the lumbering machine hunched down and turned its small, rickety eyes upon the two Overlords, _"Yes...I remember you. The pest with the black-hair..."_

"What?" Riku remarked in return.

Mew glanced at his brother and whispered, "Did you run into this psychopath on your travels?"

"No, his world wasn't one of the ones I went to..." Riku said, certainly perturbed.

"Oh so you're familiar with these losers! That makes this a hell of a lot more interesting!" Solaris grabbed Metal Face's attention and they leered their head down at him.

"_And just who the bloody hell are you pipsqueak?" _The two were right away on bad terms and Mew was almost happy to just let them bicker cause it might lead to Solaris frying him alive.

...This was the worse time possible for the Sun God to show an ounce of restraint. They reached into their pocket to pull out another vial of the Anti-Genesis Theorem, shoved it into Metal Face's...face, all while declaring, "Just shut up and accept the boost!"

Metal Face recoiled upright and started screaming in agony. It sounded like what remnants of flesh he had was being burned alive inside. His hulking mass trotted around the room, smashing up the ashen trees. Finally he stopped behind Solaris with his claws crossed before his face, with him panting heavily for air.

The experience was so visceral that it stopped Mew or Riku from moving. That certainly stopped when Metal Face lashed his arms down and bellowed a vigorous roar of renewal. His body's "veins" burst open, full of crimson light.

Metal Face then slowly fiddled his fingers before his face, his still face expressing a lot of pleasure in that particular moment.

"_This power...So much power!" _

"Hahaha! Have fun you clunker!" Solaris used this distraction to run between Metal Face's legs and continue climbing the Pyramid.

Metal Face swung his arms out and stood in the two Overlords' way, _"Don't think I forgotten what you did to me boy! You will pray you hadn't regained the use of your arm...When I slice it off, DOWN TO THE BONE!" _

Mew clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth and swung his sword down by his side, "Looks like we got an obstacle in our path Riku!"

Riku arched his brows, nodded his head, then swung his sword down while declaring, "As long as you're at my side brother, we're not going to slow down for anyone!"

A barrier started to form around the three of them, taking them to a warped dimension untouched by Solaris' flames. Metal Face stood upright, armed to the teeth with weapons galore, and beat back their boasts with one of his own, _"Then you can die...TOGETHER!"_

**Mechanized Eviscerator: Anti-Genesis Theorem Metal Face**

_Next Time: Unfinished Battle_

* * *

**Author's Note:**

I'll be taking a week off for health reasons. Don't worry, its just a cold.


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10: Mechanical Rhythm**

Standing before their mechanical foe from another world, Mew and Riku were on differing wavelengths on how to tackle it. Before either of them could advance, however, Mew felt the need to keep his brother up-to-date on how to combat this threat.

"Don't hesitate to use your elements on this one. The Theorem reacts differently than with those creatures."

"Got it." Riku obediently nodded his head and levitated his sword before his chest, pointing it straight at Metal Face.

The metal titan twisted his head to the left and muttered in a ponderous tone, _"What're you scheming over there?"_

Mew poked his eyes up and responded with a smirk, "Oh, just one of the millions of ways that we can take you down Metal Face!"

"_Cocky brats!" _Metal Face snarled and then laughed, _"I am much stronger...than either of you now!"_

The jet booster on his abdomen roared to life, lashing the back of the barrier with a hefty plume of fire. He charged forth, unimpeded by any mortal inhibitions. He raised his claws to eviscerate the two in one fell swoop, but they managed to leap out of the way, grazed by the slicing winds of his fingers.

"Ooof!" Mew spat as he was kicked back quite a few feet farther than Riku, who used a wind barrier to lessen the blow.

Metal Face locked up his jet and spun around with incredible force. By then the two Overlords had braced themselves from any further shoving. With a creak of his bulky neck the Mechon gazed at both of them and muttered to himself in a cheerful tone, _"So, which one of you wants to die first?"_

Mew drew his sword up towards the man of metal and proclaimed, "Man! Why is it that when your type gets a bit stronger you suddenly get drunk off the power?!"

Metal Face turned his body all the way towards him and wiggled his claws before his face, _"Ah! Nice of you to volunteer to go first!" _

He skated straight at Mew using his jet booster for extra speed. He was no doubt faster than he used to be, but all that speed belonged to a giant hunk of metal.

"Hehehe!" Mew kept a smile to himself as he slammed his blade into the ground and knelt behind it. Metal Face's claws came swinging three times in quick succession, but failed to breech his defenses.

And with as solid of a wall as that blade was, Metal Face was forced to stall when his claws repelled off it.

"_GHHH!" _He growled as his arms recoiled over his head, and the rest of his body began to fall back.

"Riku! He's all yours!" Mew declared.

Riku quietly glided towards Metal Face, arching his flight to rise above his jet engine. He readied himself to stamp down and force the Mechon onto their back. But Metal Face regained his balance, slamming his feet down and swinging his claw back to swat Riku away.

"_Useless!" _Metal Face declared as he enjoyed watching Riku tumble about in the air.

"Not exactly!" Mew grunted as he leaped and swung his blade down at Metal Face's head. The Mechon turned and blocked the blade with the back of his claws, where Mew proceeded to spin around like a sawblade to grind away at them.

Metal Face stabbed his other claws between his own and knocked Mew back. Mew's spinning slowed until he landed cleanly on his feet, with blade held backhanded behind his back. The steel shined from handle to tip, vanishing as Mew swung two cleaving blasts of raw energy towards Metal Face.

Both attacks connected with Metal Face's chest, putting a minor scratch into his frame. The Mechon put a claw before the wound and chuckled aloud, _"Is that the best you can do?!"_

"You don't deserve me at my best, bub!" Mew replied in a cocky tone to get on Metal Face's rather thin nerves.

"_Brag all you want, brat...In the end you'll still die!" _Metal Face opened his shoulder extensions and fired a series of small missiles towards Mew.

"Ho boy!" Mew whistled as he hopped away from the rain of explosions. Each blast was laced with some of the Anti-Genesis Theorem, so being in close proximity made him feel a tad woozy.

"_Can't see him, can't sense him..." _Mew stopped in the middle of the smoky clouds and held his breath, cautiously putting his sword at his back.

"_Gotta let him make the next move..." _He closed his eyes and waited to feel any shifts in the air around him. The first vibrations came from in front, and Mew was quick to draw his blade up. He blocked a spinning ring of slicing energy from cutting right through him.

"W-Well this is a new trick!" He said, giving the bare minimum of praise to Metal Face. The blade dragged him out of the clouds and pinned him against the edge of the barrier.

The attack wasn't going to breech his sword. Mew was confident there was little that could. But he couldn't bear to give an inch, otherwise some part of him would get cut. And so Metal Face had free reign to attack from any other angle he pleased.

The roar of the Mechon's jet engine revealed that he'd be taking a "head-on" approach to his assault. His thick shadow penetrated the clouds while the dire gleam of his red eyes bore down on Mew's line of sight.

"_You're mine now!" _Metal Face boasted as he began to swing his claws down towards Mew's sides.

A loud clang rang through the Mechon's joints as he found his claws forced to a stop before coming anywhere close to their target. Mew looked up and saw Riku grabbing onto the tips of all ten claws, five in each hand, and holding them off with an incredible exertion on his part.

"_Grr...! You just don't know when to stop getting in my way, do you?!" _Metal Face expressed incredible annoyance at this "fly's" presence. Riku didn't change his expression, dominating the Mechon with a stare colder than the arctic waters below the city.

"_Fine then! Die together!" _Metal Face pressed his claws in harder, forcing Riku's elbows to start bending inward.

Riku calmly closed his eyes and levitated his sword before his body. The blade began to spin, filled with a white light. In the blink of an eye his body became covered in that same light, and he changed into his Light Form.

He immediately forced Metal Face's claws off and threw the Mechon's state of mind into disarray. Then he charged forth and punched the Mechon in the chest as a bolt of light. The hulking metal frame stumbled back, where Riku bounced against his chest a couple more times to keep forcing him back.

"_This form again?! Its not enough to beat me!" _Metal Face sliced his right claw down as quick as a whip and managed to intercept Riku, swatting him straight into the floor.

But Riku managed to firmly plant his feet in the ground and fly right back in without missing a beat. He uppercut Metal Face square in the jaw. A resounding flash of light rang out, the sound of chimes ringing in his foe's hearing receptors.

Riku's back-up weakened Metal Face's command over the blade bugging Mew. All Mew had to do now was turn his sword and the blade cut itself in half on the edge.

He stood back for a moment to gauge his next move. Riku was having his way with Metal Face at the moment, each attack of his pushing the Mechon farther away, and further into a fit of rage.

But Riku's speed was starting to slow. He was just barely avoiding Metal Face's flailing claws. And that's when it dawned on Mew that his brother had never encountered the Anti-Genesis Theorem directly like this.

"Riku! Fall back!" Mew proclaimed. Riku immediately froze in place and looked over his shoulder. There were a few sweat drops on his face. He silently nodded his head and withdrew from the confrontation, but not before Metal Face took another swipe at his wings.

Mew interjected in the nick of time and deflected the claws with a swing of his blade. He was repelled towards his brother, and the two landed back-to-back on the ground at the same time. Mew held his blade towards Metal Face while Riku leaned into his brother's body to relax for a moment.

"I felt weaker the longer I was near him." He commented, a tinge of tiredness present in his voice.

"Yeeeeah, that's another thing the Theorem's capable of. Sorry for not mentioning it sooner." Mew hastily apologized.

"Its not your fault brother. I was too reckless."

Mew glanced over his shoulder with a blank stare and chuckled, "THAT was being reckless?"

"_Ahem!" _Metal Face rudely proclaimed. Mew looked back and blocked one of Metal Face's claws from slicing down.

The Mechon pressed the full weight of his body against Mew's blade, lurching his head in closer to really get the grit of his voice impressed into his ears, _"I'm sorry, am I interrupting?!"_

"Oh no no please by all means, we weren't doing anything important anyways!" Mew replied with his carefree tone of voice.

"_You're a real chatterbox, aren't you?" _Metal Face grumbled back.

"Yeah," Mew cracked a smile and made a subtle nudge over his shoulder, where Riku no longer stood, "But it makes for a pretty good distraction."

Metal Face noticed his disappearance and immediately pulled his head up. Riku was above him with katana drawn, the glint of his blade obscuring most of his body.

"_You...!" _Was all the Mechon could get out before Riku dove down and drove the edge of his blade into Metal Face's head. He immediately hopped back behind Mew when he landed and locked his weapon back into the sheath.

The light he left behind exploded upon the Mechon's face, tearing most of the center off. As other bits chipped off his head, Metal Face crossed his claws before it and growled deeply to himself.

"_Hahaha...! Is that really all you've got?!" _He swung right back into cockiness and lashed his claw down towards the brothers. They parted ways, both competing for the Mechon's attention.

Metal Face drew his ire towards Riku in particular and slid along the ground after him, keeping up the onslaught of his claws at a fevered pace. Riku gripped his katana tightly and lashed it out to repel the attacks.

Mew tried running in from behind only for Metal Face to fire up his jet engine and blast Mew in the face with pressurized flames.

"_Shove off, brat!" _Metal Face rubbed in Mew's face as the boy went flying far away from him. The Mechon then used this propulsion to pin his claws against Riku's blade and ram him straight into the barrier's edge.

He dragged Riku off the ground through his claws but failed to breech the stalwart defense his sword put up. Metal Face then tried stabbing his other claws into Riku's body. Over and over again he made an attempt at his face but could never succeed in getting past his sword.

"_Hold still you!"_ Metal Face proclaimed, with Riku not even trying to get a word in edgewise.

The Mechon was suddenly bombarded from behind by a few large blasts, turning his attention away for just a brief moment. Mew ran in as quick as his feet would carry him and held his sword back like a javelin tosser at the Olympics.

"_You again? Don't you ever learn?!" _Metal Face once more tried the ol' jet engine routine, but this time Mew threw his sword into the center of it and caused the flames to back-up.

Fire spurted out of the engine and then the entire thing burst apart at the seams, firing Mew's sword right back into his hand. Metal Face let out a hoarse scream of pain as the flames seemed to enter his innards momentarily. He was forced to let Riku go and spin to put the flames out.

While he was turning Mew lined up his sword and tossed it once against into Metal Face's head. The earlier wound served as a perfect entry point for the blade to pierce straight through. Mew then dug his heels into the ground and rubbed his hands together like before his face with a scheming smile.

"Now for the piece de resistance!" He happily clapped his hands together and energies condensed into his blade, causing an explosion to be set off that tore Metal Face's head in half. And said blast returned Mew's blade to him, where he snagged it out of the sky in one hand.

The Mechon's face couldn't be described as a face anymore. It was more like a lump of twisted metal spread out in two directions, with a few wires poking out in-between. Not that this would be enough to stop him, but it was surely a good way to piss him off.

"_Miserable wretch! I will cut your face off for this!" _Metal Face swung his claws down to his sides and fired off his jet engine. It seemed as though the damage was only a temporary deterrent, as the flames roared loudly behind him and set him on a one-way collision course with Mew.

Mew tried leaping out of the way, as he tended to do, but this time rage proved to be a good motivator for the Mechon to try something new. He extended his claws out and started spinning rapidly in place, dragging Mew into a heavy slicing whirlwind that cut away at his skin and clothes.

He didn't stop until reaching the other side of the barrier, where he finally had the pleasure of pinning the tips of his claws against Mew's chest.

"_I'll cut you open and spill your guts right before your brother's eyes! Then we'll see just how calm he behaves then won't we?" _

Mew weakly opened one and chuckled, "You couldn't even kill a Nopon."

Metal Face dragged his right claw back and went straight in for the decisive piercing blow. But Mew closed his eyes, concentrated through the fog in his head, and converted the skin on his chest into a familiar violet metal. The Mechon's claws struck into it and the force of his blow was repelled across his entire body as a violent shockwave.

"_AUUUUUGH!" _Metal Face screamed as his body was tossed twenty feet back, _"How dare you...!"_

Before he could retaliate Riku came flying in from both of the Mechon's sides one second at a time and slashed his claws. Mew's little stunt with vibranium had weakened the mech's frame enough for Riku to cut the tips of the claws right off.

Riku then turned around and landed on the ground directly aside Metal Face. His sword drawn from the sheath, he attempted to swing a few blades of light into the Mechon's body. Metal Face fired up his jet engine and took to the skies, flying as far up as the barrier would permit. He folded his legs and arms in to take the form of an aircraft and then tucked his dismantled head in to allow his laser cannon room to aim at Riku.

"_I grow tired of playing with you maggots! Die!" _He charged up his laser in only a couple seconds and fired a phenomenally massive laser across the sky. The atmosphere was scorched with a faint shade of red as the beam seemed to be on an unavoidable journey to take Riku down.

Mew ran across the ground and gripped the white trigger of his blade to go into Light Form. He stood in front of his brother and performed a quick slice at the air to summon a reflective wall right in front of the beam. The energies collide with resounding force, shaking the battleground like a bomb had been dropped.

But the mirror quickly contained the beam and fired it right back at Metal Face in record time. It smashed into the center of his body and made him plummet right back to the ground where he belonged.

Mew turned around and let out a brief huff of relief. Riku stood up, brushed some of the dirt off his robe, and humbly spoke to his brother, "I should've done that. You saved me again brother."

Mew planted his fists on his hips and glanced over his shoulder to say, "Truth be told I didn't think that'd work!"

Riku just stared blankly at his brother's face for an extended period after that, even when Mew had turned his attention back to Metal Face. The Mechon struggled to stand. The beam had put a massive dent in his abdomen, exposing a plethora of complex machinery underneath.

Mew rubbed up the top of his katana's handle with his palm then gripped it tight in his hand, "Geez I'm getting real tired of this guy getting back up, aren't you?"

"What's your suggestion brother?" Riku inquired in an almost submissive tone.

Mew glanced back with a big smile and thumbs-up, "We hit him with everything we've got! One strike, right in the stomach! That oughta take him down!"

Riku solemnly nodded his head, drew his katana up and remarked, "I'll follow your lead."

"Then lets do this!" Mew hunched over, the bones in his knees trembling as he prepared to fly forth at the speed of light. Riku was conjoined at his side, the two's bodies becoming pure light that spiraled around one another.

Metal Face stood and drew his claws straight before his stomach. A pitiful last resort against an inevitable end. The brothers' lights became as one, and together they drilled their way through the Mechon's last line of defense and straight into his gut.

They hit the back wall and rebounded over Metal Face's body. The Mechon's upper half detached and flew high up, crash landing upon its legs and reducing them to a heap of burning scrap.

Mew and Riku returned to their physical form standing next to each other. Mew then sheathed his sword and threw up his hand at Riku.

"High-five!" He proclaimed, catching his brother by surprise. Riku paused for a few seconds then slowly raised his right hand to high-five Mew back. Mew then curled his hand into a fist and pulled it into his chest triumphantly.

"Don't celebrate just yet, brats..." Metal Face's voice could be heard coming from the wreckage, this time in a much clearer state than it had ever been.

From the ashes of the wreckage a tall figure tore itself free from the Mechon's chest. Draped in the shadow of his former shell, this person wore a dark-blue and golden exoskeleton that resembled parts of Metal Face. But instead of a head of flesh, the two Overlors bore witness to a bright crimson flaming skull atop the person's body. The bones of their skull had been twisted to resemble the Mechon's face, with the jaw detached from everything else. The skull even had the Mechon's horns.

The body exuded the terrifying glow of the Anti-Genesis Theorem, which appeared to be the cause behind the person's malfested form.

"I have ascended beyond my feeble form...! Everyone is a maggot to me now! Not just that fool Dunban! Egil...and that weakling Zanza too! I am beyond all of them!" The person laughed aloud, drunken with a toxic blend of egotism and power.

Their ghastly jaw snapped into place and creaked with a smile as their sights were set upon the two brothers. Their razor sharp fingertips raised with bloodlust.

"Its time for you louts..." Before Mew could blink the person had gotten behind him with one claw drawn back, ready for the plunge, "TO KNOW YOUR PLACE!"

He didn't even manage to get one inch closer when a sheath suddenly punctured through his chest and suspended him in place. Riku stood with his back to the man and his body hunched to keep the sheath forced through.

He slowly opened his eyes and remarked in a calm, almost cold tone of voice, "Your place resides in the fires of Hell. Sink silently into the darkness, Metal Face."

Riku withdrew his sheath from the person's body and Mew's expression sank in sync with a long sigh of disappointment.

"Ah come on Riku..." A click could be heard coming from Mew's sheath due to him locking the katana back into place. The person controlling Metal Face was suddenly sliced in half through his abdomen and as the two halves fell to the ground Mew looked over his shoulder and sounded almost insulted to say, "That was supposed to be my cool moment!"

The barrier shattered, and Metal Face's remains were not carried back with them to the Pyramid. Riku stared at his brother and seemed to be fighting the urge to laugh as he replied, "I'm...sorry?"

Mew reverted to his base form and Riku did the same a moment later. Mew then propped his fists up to his sides and remarked, "Ah think nothing of it! I'm glad you got my back."

He then had a little bit of a serious look in his eyes as he said, "But I think I've had just about enough of these distractions. Its about time we took the fight to Solaris, eh?"

Riku nodded his head and pointed out, "He made his way up the stairs. Do you think he's at the top?"

"I could bet a hundred dollars he is! ...If I had a hundred dollars." Mew mumbled that last bit to himself as he turned around and ran right for the stairs. There was nothing distracting the two brothers from making a clean run to the very top of the Pyramid for what would be the second time this week for Mew.

Fire covered their surroundings all the way through, and the source of these flames, Solaris, stood comfortably at the very top of the Pyramid when they arrived. He was relaxing in front of the former Neo Drive chamber with his arms crossed. With nothing better to do but stand around it seems, he started talking to himself.

"Someone actually got that Neo Drive? Hot damn, well where the hell are they?! They'd probably make for a good opponent too!"

Mew couldn't help but bust a gut laughing out loud at that, even if it did ruin the element of surprise. Solaris twitched then sharply turned around to face the two Overlords. With a look of utter disgust he proclaimed, "Oh come on! That hunk of metal couldn't stop you either?!"

"Gee, its like we're strong or something..." Mew merrily put his hands up by his face and shook his head.

Solaris grabbed the front of his face and dragged his fingertips down it. When he pulled his hand away he proclaimed, "Yeah, you're a strong pain in my ASS! How many times do I gottta spell it out before you get the hint?!"

Riku drew his sword at Solaris and told him off bluntly, "We're not going to stop hunting you down as long as you and your family threaten the universe."

Mew bobbed his head then raised his sword as well, "If you didn't want us around perhaps you should've picked your fights a little better."

"For the love of..." Solaris swung his head back and unfurled his arms from his chest. Squeezing his hands in he erupted into flames and roared, "Fine! I'm done sending wimps! I'm gonna do what I should've done from the start!"

Mew turned to Riku, he turned to Mew, and the two nodded their heads. Without a word they pointed themselves at Solaris and went on the attack. Solaris turned around, dug his fingernails deep into the Neo Drive pillar, and tore the whole thing out of the ground with ease.

He then flung it at the two Overlords. It bounced along the ground loudly and forced them to stop in order to cut it down. In the meantime Solaris levitated away from the broken chamber and swung his right hand up. From his wrathful flames emerged a giant triangular slab of solid magma. It crackled as fire split across the seams, exposing the weapon as his sword.

"Take this!" Solaris threw one hard slash and the fires that emerged rocked the entire Pyramid while caging Mew and Riku in the Neo Drive's domain.

"Shoot!" Mew proclaimed as he took a swing at the ceiling's cage, finding his sword easily rebounding off of it.

Solaris then took his sword by his hip and the fires spread across his body. A full suit of armor was pulled forth from a hellish realm of pure flame, covering the Sun God up to his neck. The armor was made of dried and cracked lava and the whole thing was thicker than his fingers. His shoulder plates, triangular in shape, were each two feet wide.

He clutched the handle of his sword between his jagged fingers and raised it high above his head. The blade exploding like an active volcano, raining red hot ash down from the sky and drenched his twisted expression of joy in a shade.

"I'm going to wipe out this city of traitors in one attack, and you ants can burn along with it! That oughta be enough to drag the Phoenix of Destruction out of hiding!"

For the first time since encountering the Sun God Mew and Riku could feel the raw power he wielded so casually in his hands. A brief taste of power was more than enough for them to understand that Solaris could back his words.

Mew turned to Riku and tried to keep his cool as he asked, "Hey Riku, do you have a plan for this one?"

Riku closed his eyes and breathed in deeply. Mew waved a hand up before his face and said, "Uhhh, Riku? Hello?"

Riku clutched his right hand into a fist and whispered to himself, "I don't want to use it yet, but I might not have any choice..."

"Use...it?" Mew tilted his head.

_Meanwhile, on ground level..._

Joe Dark has managed to evade Kairi's pursuit by weaving through the puzzled crowd of Aurians and forcing her to keep after him. She frantically runs forward and yells at the Dark King to "Stop!" but he is certainly not in the mood to respond.

Finally though she finds herself in a wide-open space between her and him and decides to strike while the time's opportune. She slams down her Angel Drive to transform, then bolts at Joe Dark faster than he could blink.

The Dark King turns in place and holds the unconscious Gabriel in front of him as a deterrent, and an effective one at that. Kairi withdraws her staff before it cracked Gabriel's skull open like an egg then hops back.

Joe Dark suddenly dropped Gabriel to the ground and stepped right on over him. His hollow eyes looked even more like death as the black darkness rose around his body. He drew his thimble dagger in his right hand and flew straight at Kairi.

He swung at her face without hesitation and drew a thin cut on her cheek as she pulled back. He lunged the dagger at her a few more times. His movements were stiff but precise, as if he was under someone else's control.

But though her heart raced and her muscles were tense, Kairi's staff sufficed plenty as a line of defense against the Dark King's assault. She held off a few of his lunges then smacked him across the face with her weapon. He barely flinched and was immediately back on the attack.

He stabbed at her rapidly, his attacks emitting a faint glow in the air. If one were to count them all, they'd find them numbering in the hundreds by the time he finished up. Kairi put up a defensive wall of aura but the stabs were numerous enough to shatter it and push her back.

Her hands were shaking as she drew her staff down by her hip and stared the Dark King in the eyes. Her heart thumped loudly and all other sounds were drowned out. Joe Dark raised his dagger at her face, his expression unchanged.

"_So this is the Dark King...I can't let my guard down for a second." _Kairi steeled her feet onto the ground and raised one hand towards Joe Dark.

Before their confrontation could advance any further, however, Kairi was shook by a subtle shockwave moving throughout all of Sancturia. It was like...the sky had broken open, and Hell was given free reign to rampage the Earth asunder.

She cautiously turned her head around towards the Pyramid. Solaris' body was a bright red star in the sky, his presence glazing the infinite sky in a shade of blood red.

"Oh...no!" Kairi didn't know what this meant. Were Mew and Riku ok? If they were, why couldn't they stop the Sun God?

And just to add even more confusion to the mix, Joe Dark started to stir. He let out a hiss, then a growl, and when Kairi faced him his head started trembling. He was forcing a scowl, and bits of his real eyes started to break through the haze of white.

"Wh...Wh..." With a tone of misery and anger, Joe Dark uttered a single word, filled with hate, "Whi...ter...!"

For at that moment, another power had emerged in Sancturia...And its return filled Kairi's heart with dread.

Above the Pyramid Solaris' flames roared out of his sword like a dragon's mane. It howled to the peak of the city's barrier and drenched Sancturia in a crimson hue.

With the two Overlords seemingly powerless to break through his flames to stop him, Solaris took a moment to ask of them, "Well ants?! Any last words before I roast this whole place to ash?!"

"Personally, we couldn't care less if this city burns to the ground..."

Solaris suddenly undid all his hard work in an instant and turned around. Mew and Riku froze in place, with Mew in shock and Riku arching his brows into a narrow glare.

Alex Whiter hovered behind the Sun God with his hands in his pockets and his grin as wide as he could muster. And in turn, Solaris bore the same type of smile as he anxiously drew his sword down by his side and hunched towards his awaited foe.

"But if this place shall burn, we will be the ones to do it." Alex's malice was as cold as his heart. But the anticipation on his face paled in comparison to what Solaris felt across his entire body. From head-to-toe he trembled with excitement and set his body aflame instantly.

"Finally! I've waited so goddamn long for you to show your face, Phoenix of Destruction!"

"...Who are you supposed to be again?" Alex dismissed him with little care in his voice.

"I'm the strongest of all the Sun Gods, Solaris!" Solaris stood up and pointed the tip of his sword right into Alex's face, "And I'm the one who's going to kick your ass!"

"Oh, that's right..." Alex spat on Solaris' sword then raised a hand only to push the blade down from his face, "You're one of Justek's whelps. The frail little boy who is only good at barking like a pup."

Solaris' smile turned sour and he quickly withdrew his sword, scowling back at Alex with a remark of, "Underestimating me already...? You're going to regret that."

Alex lazily held his hand up and drew his sword, its amber sheen reflecting Solaris' face, "They call our blade Gekimatsu, the Sun-Rending Crimson Blade..."

Solaris twitched slightly and muttered, "S-So what?"

Alex dispelled his sword, tucked his hands comfortably back into his pockets, then leered his head back with a cocky smirk, "We don't need it. We will rend you limb from limb with our bare hands, boy."

"Pffft...Bring it on you cocky bastard. When I'm done with you your head'll make a good gift to my father!"

Destroyer and God stood eye-to-eye against one another, their fires at the forefront of their wistful audience's minds. But what really should have been on their minds was this:

"_Whoever wins, we lose."_

_Next Time: Fire and Flames_


	12. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11: Gods of Fire**

The roaring of fire spread all across Sancturia as the two deities of fire engaged one another. Solaris' blade lit up the sky and flashed like lightning with every attack he managed to connect with Alex. Alex retaliated with a punch to the edge of the blade, leaving behind only bits of soot on his knuckles.

Solaris swung with all his might but could move from one attack to the other with some surprisingly fluid movements. When the two forces collided, a loud crack similar to a point-blank shotgun blast ripped through the air. Their shockwaves rocked the ground below, throwing many a confused Aurian off their feet if not wounding them outright.

The only one largely unaffected by this clash was Kairi, who stood tall but shaken by the two's battle. It was the worst possible scenario come true, and she had no way of telling if her home would survive.

"Ghhh...GRRRRHHHH!" The agonizing hiss of Joe Dark struggling with himself pulled her attention back. The Dark King was squeezing his head in pain and split his mouth open with drool stretched between his lips. With ragged breaths his darkness waved around, refusing to stay put around his body.

"Get...out! Of...MY...HEAD!" He screamed violently into the void of his mind against an unknown foe. Whatever force controlled the mighty emperor of the abyss seemed to pale in comparison to the sheer vitriol Joe Dark felt towards Alex Whiter.

It was a rough predicament Kairi was stuck with. She couldn't leave this area while Gabriel was in danger. But she also didn't want Joe Dark to regain control, for he'd more than likely turn the chaotic battle above into a three-way melee that Sancturia would have no chance of surviving.

It seemed the wisest choice, strange as it sounded in her head, was to allow the Dark King to continue being a puppet. With a shaky grip around her staff, Kairi looked Joe Dark in the eyes and felt a modicum of pity as she took a hard swing at his forehead.

He let out a grunt of pain and stumbled back a few feet, nearly tripping over Gabriel in the process. His hand plummeted off the side of his head and the color in his eyes once more vanished in a sea of white. He swung his pale gaze up at Kairi and immediately drew his dagger to continue the fight.

Kairi positioned her staff before her chest and muttered to herself, "I hope I made the right decision..."

Joe Dark was the last threat on the ground. The army of creatures had been dealt with by her people. As much as it pained her to leave Alex and Solaris alone, she was the only feasible line of defense against the Dark King. She'd just have to trust that Mew and Riku were still able to interfere.

So it was fortunate for her state of mind that she didn't notice that that was not the case. Mew and Riku stood inside of Solaris' cage of fire unable to break through. Mew kept swinging his sword at the roof only for it to bounce off.

He staggered back after a few of those blows and his blade dropped to the ground. After shaking his head a few times Mew propped himself up against his sword and remarked, "I think I'm going to need a little more power to bust us out of here."

As he started to consider motioning for the white trigger, Riku planted his hand onto his chest without looking away from the battle above. His eyes narrowed to peer through the flames, and his head slowly shifted to keep a lock on Alex in particular.

Right now him and Solaris were locked down, with Alex only needing to use his bare knuckles to keep the Sun God's blade at bay. Riku could feel the air trembling around the two, as if some part of them was trying desperately to break but simply could not.

"Lets just stay back and watch for now." Riku said to his brother, who was a little too antsy to take that advice sitting down.

"Alex can't fight Solaris on his own! He needs-"

Solaris suddenly went flying by overhead, with a sound like a gunshot firing off a second later. Alex then started floating towards him with both his hands in his pockets.

Mew gawked and was at a bit of a loss for words. So, Riku spoke in his place, "It looks like he's handling himself just fine. If the battle escalates, then we'll step in."

Mew promptly rested his elbow atop his sword and sighed, in essence agreeing with the idea. But little did Mew know, his brother had some ulterior motives in mind by holding him back. Riku continued to observe Alex and Alex alone with a narrow, almost personal squint of the eyes.

"_This is a perfect opportunity to figure out the Phoenix of Destruction's weaknesses. Or, if Solaris manages to put up a good fight, a chance to end the Phoenix of Destruction's life right here."_

Solaris dragged his sword to the right side of his body and bore a toothy grin towards his opponent. Alex paused just above the center of the Pyramid and cocked his head to the side, flashing an equally feral smile.

"This is the fight I've always wanted!" Solaris took one hand off his sword to squeeze it into a fist before his face, "There's no greater opponent out there than you, Phoenix of Destruction!"

"Hehehe...!" Alex closed his eyes and chuckled.

"Why're you laughing?" Solaris muttered in a somewhat offended tone.

"Its laughable to think that you are anywhere close to being on the same level as us." Alex whispered in return. Solaris' aura flared up in response, but Alex replied by throwing his right hand up and unleashing a titanic bolt of lightning.

Despite how violently the sky shook Solaris stayed steady as he cleaved his blade down into the bolt, knocking it straight into the side of the Pyramid. It was a miracle at this point that the whole structure hadn't collapsed upon itself from all the damage it had taken over the past few days.

With one attack having failed an opportunity arose to Alex for another one. He zipped straight into the Sun God's face and punched him square in the chest. A few cracks, each barely wider than a strand of hair, formed as he was shoved back.

Before Solaris could swing his sword up Alex spun his right leg up in the air and struck him in the neck. He hooked his foot around the back of his neck and dragged him around and down into a solid plate of steel he just formed.

Alex pressed his foot onto the back of Solaris' skull and ground his face against the steel, which looked a lot more grainy than it did a second ago. All this done with Alex's hands sitting comfortably in his pockets.

"See what we mean?" The taunt proved to hurt Solaris more than having his face scraped. With a hefty grunt flames exploded out of Solaris like a volcano starting to erupt.

Alex disappeared into thin air, and the Sun God rose and turned his head around to try and find him. He caught Alex reappearing behind him with a vile grin and immediately turned to swing his sword back.

Alex raised his right foot and hit it off the edge of the blade to bounce back. Even the flames that emerged did little to slow the destroyer down.

Solaris was quick to whip his blade back down in the opposite direction, then back up again, building up a dual-layered wave of flame that howled as it flew towards Alex.

Without moving out of place Alex whipped his body around and sliced through the flames with a kick, responding in kind by sending a wave of lightning back at the Sun God. It moved so fast that it chirped.

Solaris blocked it with his blade then shoved it forward. The cracks in his blade went off with an explosion, sending a plume of hot ash straight towards Alex's body.

Once more Alex seemed a little _too_ prepared for his opponent's moves, as he threw up a heavy wall of wind to suck in the ash and render its heat inert. And for what appeared to be just for the hell of it, Alex turned the wind into a wall of ice and threw it at Solaris.

Naturally it melted inches from making contact, and formed a small cloud of fog around the Sun God's body. Angrily he declared "This is nothing!" and with a slight raise in temperature reduced the fog to nothing.

But now Alex was gone. Again. Solaris swung his fist back into the air and yelled out, "What's the matter Phoenix of Destruction?! Too scared to face me head-on?!"

Alex leaned into the back of Solaris' left ear and whispered, "You are the one who's trembling."

Solaris' eyes widened and he bit his teeth down, muttering in response, "I-I'm just trembling..."

He fueled his left gauntlet full of heat and swung it back with all his might while he roared, "WITH EXCITEMENT!"

The heat exploded out of his hand with enough force to topple a skyscraper. Then he pulled his hand back slightly and lunged it into the bright yellow flames to try and grab Alex by his neck, only to snag empty air.

Solaris fiddled his hand around and tried to grab a few more times, stopping only when he heard his opponent guffaw behind him. He turned around and lashed his sword against the air, sending a wave of fire after Alex. Alex stood in place and grabbed the wave at its center, crushing down so the rest of it flew harmlessly past him.

He then thrust his hand open and let the embers flicker out into the air. Afterwards he put his hand down into his pocket and leaned back against the air, continuing to smile.

"You really think you can win by giving us a mild case of sunburn?" Alex had unshakable confidence. Not cockiness. Confidence. He was free to taunt the Sun God into attacking because in his mind he had already determined that he was no threat.

Without the ability to sense Solaris' power Riku didn't know if this was because the Sun God was weaker than they expected, or that Alex was simply that strong. It worried him, somewhat.

Solaris gripped his blade in both hands and set it ablaze at his right hip. Gnashing his teeth and settling on a scowl, he tightened his grip with a twist of the wrist and remarked, "When I'm through your skin will be redder than my hair!"

"Heh!" Alex said with a sinister smile as Solaris came flying in, swinging his sword wildly in front of his face.

Alex weaved past the broad strokes of his blade without moving out of place then dove down underneath the Sun God's left arm. He grabbed him by the armpit and turned the dry magma into solid diamond, locking his arm in place.

"You...!" Solaris had his sword stuck above his head and was forced to turn around to use his other arm for offense. A high-powered blast erupted out of his palm, filled with white-hot pebbles. Alex sped out of the way then kicked his left leg into Solaris' gut, putting a few more small cracks into the armor.

Solaris flexed his arm down to break the diamond off then replaced it with some more dried magma. He lashed his sword back at Alex's head, the Phoenix carefully ducking under it and rising once it had passed. Solaris took another swing down, and he ducked under it again.

Solaris then thrust his blade straight at Alex's face. He grinned and kicked both his feet up, firing a burst of air to jettison away unharmed and make the Sun God cough in recoil.

"You know what?" Alex remarked with a sneer as Solaris stood up and brought his blade to his side, "Using our hands is a waste of energy."

The Sun God's eyes became as big as quarters as Alex flexed his fingers up at the sides of his face then tucked his fists squarely inside of his pockets, "We only need our legs to make you squeal, piggie."

"Are you mocking me now?!" Solaris growled in frustration as the grip on his blade tightened up.

"Idiot. We've been mocking you this entire time. And you make it oooh so easy to do." Alex flexed a nasty smile upon the Sun God's face, and immediately the air around the two began to change.

It became thick with the heat exuding heavily off Solaris' body. He lowered his head and his face trembled with how tight he scowled. The scowl quickly turned into a smile and his eyes flashed with a tri-colored glow resembling the colors of the sun.

"Maybe you don't give a shit about this fight, but it means everything to me!" Solaris stood tall and with his blade in one hand and the other outstretched beside his face he proclaimed, "Fighting you makes my blood boil like never before! All the worthless sights and sounds mean nothing in the heat of battle! Its just you, me, and the sounds of our bones breaking upon one another as our flames ROAR in the air!"

Solaris squeezed his fist and his armor crackled brighter, becoming similar in appearance to active lava. A raw pulse of power shoved its way throughout Sancturia, deepening the cracks that had formed. And the Sun God's hair began to spike up a little, with a wide gash of pure fire forming down the center of his blade.

"Father trusts me to take your ass down! And I will not let him down!"

On the Pyramid roof Mew flutters his eyelashes a few times then crossed his arms against his chest to say, "You know if it wasn't for the whole 'burning the Earth' shit Solaris would...almost sound heroic right about now."

Solaris flew at Alex Whiter with his blade mid-swing for his opponent's hip. The rush of blood throughout his body fueled the flames that scorched his skin and armor whole. Alex started pulling back and rammed the heel of his shoe against the Sun God's blade, smiling all the while even as the blade hammered him with a point-blank volcanic blast.

Alex found himself shoved a few feet back and Solaris in deadly pursuit. Alex lurched forward slightly then bolted past the Sun God. When Solaris blade came down an explosion emerged from his blade to the barrier concealing the city.

With no sense of weight to his movements Solaris effortlessly turned around and rammed his blade towards the direction Alex was coming from. Alex threw his knee up in the nick of time and suffered some minor damage to his pants for the trouble, even with how big the explosion was.

Solaris rammed his blade in and struck Alex with an explosion, then pulled and slammed his blade into Alex's body a few more times to deepen the damage done. Each explosion shook the city. Even the people on the outer edge could feel a faint trace of what was going down.

Solaris then dug his sword down in place and the jagged edges of the blade whirred to life with white-hot flames. Seeming to grind against Alex's body, the Sun God stood wide-eyed amidst the flurry of sparks. He then ripped his sword high above his head, creating a pillar of multiple explosions, each bigger than the others, until the last one that went off outside the barrier was as big as the Pyramid.

"How do you like that?!" Solaris proclaimed as he propped his sword up behind his back.

"Felt rather mild," Alex's voice came from behind Solaris and the Sun God turned around with a slight sweat on his face. The Phoenix of Destruction was unharmed, and continued to smile, "Hardly singed our neck hairs."

"Then try THIS!" Solaris let one hand off to punch the air directly in front of Alex's face. A chain of explosions were unleashed from his fist until they crashed against the barrier.

Alex was nowhere to be found among those explosions. Solaris seemed to wise up and turned around having his sword swung with all his strength. Alex beat out his prediction by reappearing directly above and slamming both his feet down into the Sun God's skull.

Solaris was dragged down to the side of the Pyramid and Alex bounced off, landing a few feet behind him. Solaris spun around, slashing his blade at the empty air to hound the Phoenix with a series of explosions.

The explosions climbed the Pyramid and tore through the ground near where Mew tried to get a peek of the battle. He pulled back in a single burst of speed then raised his fists and muttered, "Ok I think NOW'S the time for us to jump in!"

"Not yet brother." Riku advised calmly.

"Riku you're killing me here." Mew groaned with his head leaned back and his teeth forcing out a rather tight grin.

Alex flew backwards over them and Solaris followed along like a burning meteor. Riku narrowed his gaze up at the Phoenix of Destruction, and in the briefest blink of an eye it appeared as though he was looking back at him.

Alex then looked back at Solaris and dove underneath another of his slashes. He kept up running and dodging until Solaris suddenly stop in place and raised his sword high above his head.

"Try and dodge this, chicken!" Solaris swung his blade down to his right then threw it behind his back to snag it in his left hand, repeating this motion a few times to start building up a whirlwind of flames.

Alex was jerked to a stop then started getting pulled towards the Sun God. Even now he couldn't stop smiling and instead of resisting charged straight into the pull of the flames. The girth of Solaris' blade ensured a powerful firestorm, one even strong enough to force Alex to bend to its whims.

Alex pointed himself straight at his opponent and attempted to drive his foot into his face, only for the whirlwind to drag him clockwise around the Sun God. Alex dug his feet into the air and turned around for another go. The heat swept down into the city and made thousands of Aurians break into a furious sweat, but to one such as Alex this desperate temperature was like a paradise.

Solaris turned towards Alex and condensed his whirlwind to force his foe right next to him. He swung his blade down upon the Phoenix's head and the gash within turned white-hot.

"DIE! COLLAPSING PYRE!" All that sweltering heat was unsurprisingly used to pound Alex down into the side of the Pyramid via a string of powerful explosions.

The last explosion tore out a large chunk of the structure but just barely avoided hitting any of the rooms. Solaris' blade dangled before his waist as he took in a deep breath and huffed it out through his smiling teeth.

Solaris spared just the tiniest moment to close his eyes and enjoy the thrill of battle, only to find Alex floating directly in front of him the moment they opened.

"Our turn..." He whispered in his raspy tone.

Solaris tried to fight but Alex rammed his right knee straight into Solaris' chest, breaking through the armor. The Sun God staggered back and his throat jerked out a few coughs in response to the blow.

Alex then loomed over the Sun God and rammed one foot into his face, laying him out horizontally before shoving him smack down into the Pyramid.

Effortless. That was the perfect word to describe everything Alex had done up until now. The mighty Solaris was little more than a rag doll for the Phoenix of Destruction to abuse at his leisure. And for just a moment, this made Riku feel pity for the Sun God.

It was an emotion that'd quickly part, however, when Solaris' answer to Alex's rampage was to set his body ablaze with a volcanic plume of fire. The fire lashed against the side of the Pyramid and sent hot debris flying down into the city.

Solaris rushed back towards the Phoenix of Destruction and slashed upward. Alex twirled behind him and shoved his foot into the back of his armor, cracking it further. Solaris whipped back around and swung his sword a few times, an incredible explosion coming from each.

Raw power but no finesse meant that Solaris was sitting on a wing and a prayer if he wanted any chance of striking Alex. That's not to say that Alex wasn't in a similar boat in the way he was attacking, but with the way his Gaia Temporis operated he could be as carefree as he wanted and still manage to strike Solaris.

Timing means nothing when one controls time...

Alex continued to play around with Solaris' attempts to strike him down by bobbing and weaving around the violent lashing of his blade and tanking the explosions as though they were humid gusts of wind. The Phoenix's smile penetrated the dead red smoke and proved a greater detriment to Solaris' concentration than any hit Alex connected thus far.

Alex raised his right foot to block one slash and the rest of his leg trembled while holding Solaris back. He shoved the blade into the Sun God's body and he stumbled back in the air.

I think you've had your fun. Now run along to your master, pup... Alex brought his hand out to wave the back of his fingers at Solaris, who letting out a seething huff of steam between his teeth in response.

Don't you DARE insult my father like that! Solaris' sword roared and he swung it upon Alex with immense brutality. A massive explosion deafened the screams of effort he made as he continued to slice away at Alex's location with blinding blasts of flame.

He saw his opponent's silhouette in the shadows and continued to attack. Relentless. Unstoppable. The full might of the sun in his fingertips struck Alex and seemed to keep him on the defensive. He didn't run, he just stood there at the Sun God's mercy.

After tearing away at Alex's flesh and bone Solaris reached out through the haze of fire and squished Alex's skull between his jagged hand. Upon digging his fingertips into the head Solaris stabbed his massive blade into Alex's gut and made it so hot that it'd burn his insides instantly, Phoenix or not.

Even the boldest of you apes should know better than to try and fuck with the sun! And I'm the strongest God of the Sun there is!

The strongest maybe...But you're also the _dumbest_. Alex's voice spoke clearly in front of Solaris.

No! How are you still alive?! Solaris demanded to know. But it was a truth that he wouldn't be prepared to accept.

As the smoke cleared he found his blade impaled through a lustrous grayish-white metal shaped like Alex's body, and the Phoenix of Destruction floated right behind it with his callous grin ever-present.

The metal started to melt in the presence of Solaris' blade, and with just a wiggle of his nose Alex made its liquefied form spread out onto both of the Sun God's arms. Solaris raised the heat around his body but that just made the metal melt down faster and spread farther.

We would advise against doing that. Tungsten is the hardest metal to melt, and one of the more toxic ones to boot.

By the time the whole body was melted down Alex had spread the metal down to Solaris' shoulders and even spread some of it onto his chest. It took a heavy amount of exertion for Solaris to stretch his arms out and rip the metal in half, where he proceeded to explode it into oblivion.

Ha...ha...! Bast-! Solaris gasped loudly as some air was visibly pulled out of his esophagus and absorbed into Alex's body. Alex widened his eyes with malicious intent as the Sun God stumbled back and started to lose his grip on his body amid his attempt to regain the ability to breathe.

Poor little nebulae. You're even more worthless than usual without oxygen to fuel your flames.

Alex slowly raised his hands out of his pockets and wiggles his stiff fingers around in place, 添ou take pride in calling yourself a God? Then you never should have tried to pick a fight with us.

Alex's eyes stretched wide-open like his grin and his eyes flared up with a bright crimson hue as he whispered in a crackled tone, 展e _kill _Gods.

Solaris froze in place as Alex took an electrified fist and shove it straight into his bared chest. Millions of volts flowed into the Sun God's lungs and forced smoke and dried blood out of his mouth. Alex withdrew without pause and tucked his hands back into his pockets.

It was a deadly blow, but the one benefit to Solaris' title is that it comes gifted with an insane degree of durability. He survived the damage to his lungs with only a mild hint of raspiness to his tone of voice thereafter.

You...! He stared red-hot daggers into Alex's face as he gripped his sword in both hands and swung it high above his head, summoning forth the towering dragon of annihilation that he had previously planned to use to wipe out Sancturia.

I CAN and WILL break you! He proclaimed with a dragon-like roar mixing in with his words.

That's enough brother. A lone voice that echoed throughout Sancturia was enough to stop Solaris in an instant.

Lunis? Solaris replied in abject confusion as the flames of his sword were dispersed to the wind, and his blade went beside his hip. He turned his head around, but would be unable to find his sibling hidden among the devastated city below.

Father wants you to fly to the meeting place. It is my turn now.

What?! Already?! But I-!

You've lost the Vortexian forces father lent you and he is starting to lose his grip on the Dark King's mind. You are risking your life if you stay here any longer. Please brother, listen to father's wishes just this once.

...Tsk! Damn it! Solaris kicked his right foot up slightly then dispelled his sword and looked Alex square in the eye to proclaim, 典his isn't over yet you son of a bitch! I'll kill you later!

Solaris turned around and started to fly. He wasn't even a few feet away when Alex appeared beside him and proclaimed with a grin, 展hy wait?!

Shit! He's following me! Why is he following me?! Solaris summoned his blade again and blocked Alex ramming head first at him. The two of them then left the barrier behind and headed up and out towards space.

Meanwhile, Kairi was catching her breath against Joe Dark, whose right knee looked bent out of place and yet still he stood upright. For the brief reprieve she was granted she looked around and wondered aloud, 展here is that other voice coming from?

The wind whispered at her side. A shade of white blurred past her, the mask it bore imprinting itself onto the corner of Kairi's eye as she started to turn and trail it.

_That was so fast...! _She remarked as she watched the shade stop behind Joe Dark and effortlessly hoist Gabriel's body off the ground.

I'm sorry for this... Lunis murmured.

G-Gabriel! Kairi tried to take up arms and attack the demonic white shade, only for them to vanish in an instant, leaving no trace of their presence.

The second after a dark rift appeared behind Joe Dark and he was forced to walk back into it, growling bitterly the name of the one he hated.

Kairi's eyes wobbled and she stretched her arm out, believing that Gabriel was still there. When the realization struck her that he was gone, and she had failed, she dropped right onto her knees and bit her lower lip.

Back atop the Pyramid the flames that caged Mew and Riku finally disappeared. Mew breathed a sigh of relief and said, 徹k, glad that's over with. Right Ri-

Riku immediately took off flying after Solaris and Alex. He narrowed his gaze upon the two and went into Light Form to speed up. The Phoenix of Destruction was but a dot in the distance, one that was growing larger with time.

_I can't let you leave the planet. Not yet. _Lunis' voice suddenly echoed across the sky, joined by a massive flash of light that seemed to spread out across the entire planet.

The next thing Riku knew his pursuit of Alex was halted by an indescribably thick and massive barrier of ice. He stopped before it and swung his blade out, only for the steel to ring out on contact and his arm to tremble uncontrollably.

He withdrew himself from the barrier slowly and looked around. The ice spread as far as the eye could see, and certainly went even farther than that. As though sensing the inquiries beginning to form in his head, Lunis provided answers to Riku and the rest of its enemies back on Sancturia.

_I have summoned a barrier of ice around your entire planet. Even the might of two Elemental Overlords will not be able to break it. This ice is connected to the moon via a tunnel on the opposite side of the planet. I will give all of you one hour to catch your breath after my brother's thoughtless rampage...But after that you must make it to my location on the moon within three hours...Otherwise, your planet will collide with the barrier and, well, I don't think I need to describe what that'll entail._

Mew looked up in the sky, pulled his head back and slapped down on his forehead to groan, 的ts just one thing after another today...

But for Riku the fate of the Earth wasn't the biggest thing on his mind at the moment. Alex's presence continued to dwindle further and further away. The destroyer had escaped his grasp for the third time now.

Alone, the soured Overlord could only squeeze his fists tightly beside his hips until the rest of his body trembled...

_Next Time: Her Curse_


	13. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12: The Cursed Visionary**

Following the aftermath of Solaris' departure and Lunis' emergence in the spotlight, Riku returned to Sancturia and went to the Pyramid to meet up with his brother. Mew had slid down the only stable part of the structure and bounced a bit landing on the ground.

Once Riku dropped down Mew looked at him with a stunned expression then smiled and chuckled, "Geez Riku, give a heads-up before you decide to go running off on your own!"

Riku's head sank and he turned his head slightly away from Mew. Mew clammed up for a bit, smacked his lips, then said in a more sincere tone of voice, "So they got away?"

"..." Riku closed his eyes and his arms tightened up against his chest.

A gentle couple of pats on his back from his brother thrust his eyes back open. Mew then gave him one hard pat, looked him in the eyes, and told him, "Well look on the bright side! At least we don't have to worry about them endangering the planet anymore!"

Riku turned his head slightly towards his brother and murmured, "I guess you're right."

"You're right I'm right!" Mew crossed his hands up by his chest and craned his neck back to look at the barrier around the planet, "Too bad about the ice though..."

Riku mimicked his brother and squinted his eyes a bit to examine the ice in greater detail. The ice was thick to keep any of them from getting out but had a glassy appearance to ensure that the sun's rays could still make it through. The planet's natural light had dimmed but beyond that the only threat the ice served was dropping the temperature a few degrees.

"_That's weird..." _Was the only thing Riku could think about it.

Mew, on the other hand, bombastically declared "Since when can Lunar Gods summon giant ice walls anyways?!" while rubbing the back of his head.

"Bah!" Mew swung his hand down by his hip and with a chipper tone of voice remarked, "Well look, we got an hour to spare. So why don't we try and help out around here?"

Riku slowly pivoted his head to stare at the denizens of Sancturia. There were many on the grounds with burns on their legs receiving care from medics. Others weren't so lucky. They were dead before help could have arrived. Not to mention all the damage done to the houses. So many memories and important possessions...Gone forever, never to be reclaimed.

Riku's fingers started tensely digging into his elbows and he almost didn't hear Mew tell him, "But first I'm going to go find Kairi. I ain't sensing Joe Dark's presence anymore so...I guess she scared him off."

Once Riku looked him in the eyes Mew winked one eye and said with a smile, "We'll meet back up at Auris' house in a bit and strategize our next move there, alright?"

"Yeah, ok brother..." Riku mumbled as Mew went running off towards the West, stopping every few steps to provide aid to those wounded by battle.

Riku brought his hands down to his hips and closed his eyes. He couldn't get this sentence, this one sentence, out of his head since he arrived in Sancturia: _"Auris is clairvoyant."_

That drowned his thoughts with its echo. His hands tightened into fists. With a sharp turn of his head he focused more towards the South and started to move one firm step at a time...

It took Mew a few minutes to get where he wanted to go. There were more people suffering than he wanted to see or even admit to noticing. It was already bad enough being at ground zero for what happened in Seattle, but seeing the Aurians up-close in their most fragile, vulnerable moment both dissuaded and motivated him from continuing on.

He could help brace some broken legs or cover wounds in medicinal plant slime, but he was powerless to give them the peace of mind they deserved.

"_...All I can do is make sure this doesn't happen again." _And this effort would start by talking to Kairi, whom he found sitting at the edge of the city looking up at the sky. Mew quietly walked up next to her, sat himself down, and laid his hands flat by his hips.

As he paddled his feet in mid-air he glanced at her with a smile. She pressed her legs up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. Then she hid her face behind them and said in a muffled tone, "I failed..._again_."

"You did? ...I don't sense Joe Dark anymore so-"

"It doesn't matter. Lunis snatched up Gabriel and took him away...While I stood there and did nothing to stop them."

Mew didn't even realize Gabriel wasn't around until she said so. A part of him just probably didn't want to consider the possibility that he was one of the casualties of battle. But, something about this didn't make any sense to him.

"Why would they _kidnap _him?"

"I don't know!" Kairi swung her head up to declare, her eyes dripping tears, "I don't know! I just don't know!"

She rocked her head hard left to right and all the frustrations that she'd been keeping in came spilling out all at once, "Ever since Alex Whiter showed up I've been taking part in a living nightmare! Solaris, Lunis, Justek, who are they?! I DON'T KNOW! What do they want? I DON'T KNOW! I don't know anything and...and it scares the hell out of me Mew!"

She pulled her bracelet up to her face and swung her hand down in disgust while proclaiming, "I didn't deserve the Neo Drive! I-I'm just a sixteen-year old girl! I shouldn't be fighting Gods and monsters and Dark Kings! I...I should be at home, studying, spending time with friends..."

"Kairi."

"WHAT?!" She turned her bloodied eyes towards Mew and bit her teeth into a frightened frown. Her lips quivered, and the stench of desperation was thick around her body.

Mew looked her square in the eyes and told her, "Do you think I know any more than you do?"

"..." Kairi puckered her lips and muttered, "When you're this calm all the time its impossible to tell..."

"True. I guess my attitude comes from just, y'know, not really having as much baggage to carry around as you do." Mew leaned back slightly and began to stand while Kairi glared at him and growled in annoyance.

"I'm _not _saying that like its meant to be a bad thing Kairi." Mew remarked with a chuckle, then laid his hands flat behind his head.

"I want to save the world, but that's just because I'm a good guy. I don't have any personal bonds with anyone on Earth." Mew said without losing his happy-go-lucky tone of voice, "But you've lived in Sancturia all your life. Even when there was a time you wanted to be anywhere but here, you still had your mother and Gabriel, and the memories of your big sister to keep you happy."

"Justek and his kids threatened your home...And right now your feelings are fighting one another for control. Wanting revenge for what they've done. Feeling regret for failing to save Gabriel. Having doubts about your worth. Fearing for your future..."

Mew tilted his head slightly to the right and remarked, "Just because Gravitus is gone doesn't mean I stopped keeping my promise to your mom. I want to make sure you stay safe Kairi. And if Solaris alone is any indication then Justek is going to be the toughest threat I ever faced. If you don't think you're up to it, then I insist you stay at home and wait for me and Riku to come back."

Mew then closed his eyes, let out a deep sigh, and murmured in a rarely heard tone of doubt, "...But **I **need you Kairi. I don't think I can make it through this without you."

He then went right back to smiling as bright as the sun and closed his eyes to say, "And no matter what you choose if you want to stop fighting after this that's fine by me! As long as we're still friends it don't matter to me!"

With some time to let his words set in her mind, Kairi started rubbing her eyes dry with one hand while forcing a smile to the surface. She then giggled slightly and remarked in a joking tone, "If you weren't such an airhead you'd make a good psychiatrist..."

She started to stand up and gently socked a puzzled Mew in the chest with her right knuckles, "And...I guess somebody's gotta make sure you don't go risking your life again."

"Ah don't be silly. Not even God could stop me from doing that!" Mew's grin widened, while Kairi's glare narrowed. She dug her knuckles into his chest until both of them heard a slight crack from some kind of bone.

"Kidding! Kidding!" Mew said with a hearty, somewhat forced chuckle.

Kairi withdrew her hand and shook her head slightly. Then she looked up at the sky and muttered, "So...what are we going to do about that?"

Mew leaned his head back and thought about that for a little before starting to reply, "We could..."

What stopped him was his conscience telling him, _"Should I really be butting into family business like that? Auris should tell Kairi when she feels comfortable doing so...Not because I asked her to."_

But for once being reasonable was more at the forefront of Mew's thought process. He closed his eyes, hung his head slightly, and let out a sigh.

"_This isn't the time for that now. We need to start getting answers, and she's the only one who knows what's going on." _So to finish off this little debate with himself on throwing Auris under the bus, Mew looked Kairi in the eyes and told her, "We _should_ go talk with your mom. She has to know a thing or two about the Justek Bunch."

Kairi widened her eyes for a brief moment then gave Mew a stern look before murmuring, "Now that you mention it..."

"Come on, lets go! Riku should already be there waiting for us!" As the two headed off to the Aurora household, Mew didn't realize just how true his statement was.

_A few minutes ago..._

Riku made his way back to Auris' house and did not hesitate to let himself in through the cloth door. Once past the door he slowly drew it shut and looked straight ahead to find Auris sitting comfortably in the same spot as before...And his eyes immediately narrowed in disgust.

She popped the lid off a bottle of whiskey with just her fingernail and started downing it. The sounds of her gulps were intentionally loud, but could not break Riku's concentration.

He slowly made his way to the left side of the couch and stared at the side of her head. She finished the whole bottle in seconds, that poisonous liquid soon stewing in her gut. She slapped the bottle down onto the table and laid her hands upon her legs. A sultry gaze to the left was followed by her smile. She then tilted her head slightly and turned the smile into a smirk.

"Can I get you anything to drink, Riku?" She mocked him with words of hospitality and grace. An allure perfectly befitting a _witch_.

Riku turned away from her and cautiously edged around to the back of the second couch. He stroked his hand along the back of the furniture until making it over to the staircase leading to the basement. He then closed his eyes and sent a small, subtle vibration through the ground from his feet.

"_We're the only ones here..." _Riku's fingers squeezed into the soft, supple leather of the couch. The tension in the air was thicker than steel, diamond, and onyx combined.

Riku felt the cold rusty daggers Auris stared into his back. He peeked over his shoulder and saw her with her hands bridged under her chin. Her stance was relaxed but showed no weakness. She saw herself as bulletproof. Immovable. Before Riku had even made the call to come to her house she had decided she wasn't scared of him.

Riku wasn't angry to be devalued like that. He was here for reasons far more important than some petty strife. This uncaring woman would come to learn how he felt, whether she liked it or not.

"...How many people have died today?" Riku started tough and firm, and stared deep into the woman's sparkling eyes.

Auris closed them up, denying him the right to judge how she felt ahead of time. The couch creaked as she leaned back into it. She then gave what was practically a non-answer, "You don't want to know."

"That's right..." Riku dug his fingers in deeper and started to turn his whole body around, "Because one was already too many."

He started walking straight towards her, and so she responded to his rash advance with a sigh. Then she stood up, reaching into her robe to pull out a lighter.

"You look stressed. Maybe you'll feel better after a quick smoke." She flicked the lighter on only for Riku to smack it out of her grasp with the back of his hand. She watched the lighter bounce then slide into the wall with a half-open gaze then turned to Riku wearing a smile that could only be described as tone-deaf.

Riku stood three feet away and growled at her through gritted teeth, "Where do you get off treating human life-?!"

"Like a statistic?" Auris curtly replied as she brushed her right hand up next to her face and turned around, "People die all the time. You can't prevent every death."

"These deaths _could _have been prevented," Riku took one hard step forward between the table and couch and swung a finger towards the ground, "**You** had the power to make that happen!"

"_Could _they have been prevented? I think you're gravely underestimating the inevitability of these events..."

"If my brother knew what was going on he would have stopped the Phoenix of Destruction and Justek wouldn't have been released." Riku edged closer, his tone of voice getting deeper.

Auris walked over to her lighter and bent over to pick it up, continuing their argument without missing a beat, "No matter the scenario Mew fighting Alex Whiter would have led to Mew regaining his memories of his time in the Mushroom Kingdom. And with that comes doubt, and that doubt is all it takes for Alex to get what he wants."

She turned around and turned the lighter on close to her chin, giving her face this rather eerie shadow as she spoke, "All my warning would have done is stop the lives in Seattle from being lost. Sancturia would still be attacked by Solaris. And we'd still be having this conversation."

She gave the lighter a firm click shut with just her thumb then tucked it away into her robe. Riku's gaze continued to narrow as he firmly told her off, "You're sick in the head. There's no other explanation as to why anyone with clairvoyance would allow this nightmare to happen."

"You think clairvoyance is so easily solved?" Auris chucked out a guffaw and gently shook her head, "You're still so young. Still _sooo_ naive, Riku."

Riku felt his heartbeat hasten as the woman's careless words burrowed into his mind.

"You of all people should know that time is not measured on a linear scale. The multiverse is real, and my eyes see it all," Auris turned her glistening whites onto Riku and he could feel her peering deep into his soul, perverting it with glimpses into his future, "Our decisions shape the flow of time. And I don't mean something as simple as choosing what sandwich we want to eat for lunch. I mean the bigger, broader choices, like for example, deciding who lives and who dies..."

"For every decision made, as long as there as at least a single percentage of uncertainty present, there will always exist an opposite outcome."

There was no emotion in Auris' voice with any of the words she spoke. She was a drone spewing out exposition that just so happened to look human. And everything she said reeked of being an excuse to divert Riku's attention from her inexcusable behavior.

"Then you do everything you can to ensure the best possible outcome."

"You don't understand..." Auris murmured while she slowly shook her head.

"I don't **need **to understand because what you're saying is bullshit!" Riku exclaimed, lowering his voice a few decibels after to growl at her, "Thousands of people died today because you didn't lift a finger to stop it."

"Or perhaps my alternate self is to blame for choosing to do something, and thus creating the me that failed to do anything." She said with a smooth chuckle.

"Is this a _joke _to you?" Riku said with his heart pounding furiously against his chest, barely containing the rage he felt.

"Perhaps I wasn't firm enough before..." Auris suddenly took one hard step towards Riku and narrowed her eyes with a slanted glare, "You. _Don't_. Understand."

As she slowly made her way towards Riku her towering figure looked a lot more imposing than it did before, while the glint in her eyes appeared a little hellish.

"I saw the last two-thousand years unfold before it happened. I saw that same amount of time unfold in another timeline. And the same amount in another. And another. And another. And another."

Auris firmly planted her feet directly in front of Riku and he soon came to realize that she could just look down on him without moving her head at all.

"Take the biggest number you can think of and it wouldn't even compare to the amount of years I've been forced to observe. You think you'd do better by this 'blessing'? This curse?" Auris' smirk perked up and she said with an outright malicious tone of voice, "I think Link's _corpse_ could vouch for how inept you've been with foreknowledge."

Anger. Rage. Hatred. A shroud of red blanketed Riku's eyes for just the briefest of moments. The pounding drumbeat of his own heart throbbed in his ears as he lunged out and grabbed Auris by the neck, effortlessly dragging her across the ground before slamming her into the nearby wall.

It was a course of action born of impulse. But when Riku started seeing clearly again and had her eyes set upon Auris' squirming face...he didn't feel any hesitation to keep his grip tight around her neck.

"There it is..." She said with a dull but pained quiver of her lips.

"I've already made peace with my past mistakes..." Riku turned his head up and raised Auris higher against the wall, putting cracks in the house, "But you...You're just too content to relish in yours!"

"You've made peace...? Is that so? Then...you've told your brother what happened already, correct?" To the bitter end, Auris would try and get a word in edgewise, "Hmm...I wonder...what his reaction would be. But...that's what you're afraid of, isn't it? Being judged harshly by the one you look up to the most?"

Riku's grip became crushing as he bitterly growled at Auris, "Leave my brother out of this! You've been leading him on, treating him like a sacrificial pawn!"

"Then that'd make you the Knight, wouldn't it? Or more fittingly, your brother's keeper?" Auris gasped free from her lungs, "Is this really the best you've got?"

She managed a stern glare even as her esophagus was being crushed in Riku's vice grip then told him bluntly, "Go ahead. Choke me. Skin me. Burn me. Wound me! You can _hurt_ me, but you will never **kill **me."

Riku let out a "Tsk!" then squeezed his shaking fingertips into the sides of Auris' neck, his voice deepening and becoming cold as he told her, "The way I see it your inaction is just as bad if not worse than the Phoenix of Destruction or Justek's actions."

"Then you **will **kill me?" Auris chuckled heartily to herself, "That is your 'justice'? Punish those you see as 'wrong', to preserve the lives of those you see as 'right'?"

She briefly closed her eyes and continued to chuckle to herself as best she could, "A philosophy that's cut from the same cloth as one Alex Whiter...I suppose its only fitting."

Riku widened his eyes and drew his free hand back, igniting the fingertips with flame. The next second he found the left side of his face struck hard by a blunt instrument. His body was dropped hard to the ground, but not before he was forced to let go of Auris.

He slid on his side into the fireplace and let out a hard cough. He quickly opened his eyes and sprang upright, only to stop midway through when he found that his assailant was none other than Kairi. She was panting her lungs out and her staff was stuck at the end of its swing.

She stared at him, her eyes slowly growing as she whispered with a pale breath, "You're...not being controlled..."

Riku had only to look a little to the left to see his brother wandering into the house and wondering aloud, "Whoa! What's going on here?!"

Riku watched as Auris covered her neck, but only enough to keep anyone but him from watching the small finger penetration wounds seal up in milliseconds. And having displayed some more of her otherworldly nature, the witch attempted to sway the flow of the conversation with her bewitching, honeyed words.

"Riku and I were just having a conversation and things got a little...heated, to say the least." All said with a smile.

"_No..." _Still fired up with the embers of rage Riku stood right up and told himself, _"Enough is enough."_

Regardless of the present circumstances, he opened his mouth and stated, "Don't listen to her Kairi. She's trying to hide the truth from you that she's clairvoyant."

Never could he have expected the color from not just Kairi's, but also his brother's face, to be flushed away so quickly. Mew widened his eyes, swung his arms down and proclaimed in abject disbelief, "Riku what the HELL?!"

"W...What?" Kairi cocked her head back slightly towards her mother and her eyes started wobbling, her mouth becoming slightly agape.

Auris simply closed her eyes and titled her head towards Riku to calmly retort, "Yes. And when Riku found that out he tried to kill me."

Kairi sharply turned her head towards Riku and started gritting her teeth. She turned her head back and forth between her mom and Riku before finally settling on staring him down and tightly holding her staff.

"W-WHAT?!" She was about to run towards him when Mew got between them with his arms stretched out at shoulder length.

He worked quickly to take advantage of the confusion and proclaim, "We can hash this all out later! We don't have time to fight each other!"

"Are you serious?!" Kairi responded harshly, yet Mew kept his cool throughout.

"This is one time where I am, yes!" His declaration of such held Kairi back long enough for Auris to stealthily step behind her and return to sitting down on the couch.

She expertly used the same confusion to take full control over Mew and Kairi's attention by saying in a casual tone, "So...I suppose you came here to learn more about Justek, no?"

It was like her clairvoyance had been common knowledge all along, at least in her twisted view of the world. Mew slowly turned to Auris, crossed his arms and said comfortably to her, "Yeah? So you're willing to talk about him?"

Auris bridged her hands under her chin and remarked, "I don't want you to have come here for nothing."

Riku walked in closer but Mew put his left hand up to his chest and kept him back. He looked him in the eyes with a stern glare and whispered, "You stay there. We'll talk in a bit."

It was the first time Riku had seen Mew sound disappointed with...anyone! And it had to be towards him first and foremost...Without saying a word, Riku stayed where he was and listened to what Auris had to say. Because unfortunately, she was the only one who knew anything about their enemy.

"So. Where do you want me to start?" She murmured.

"How about who Justek is? That sounds good." Mew calmly answered.

"...Who he is huh?" Auris started to lean back into the couch, "He was...a friend. The Elemental Overlord's best friend, to be exact."

"'Was'?" Mew remarked.

"Justek was his friend for almost thirty years...But circumstances twisted Justek's heart and turned him into not just his enemy, but an enemy of all ten elemental tribes. He raged a war against us all with the aide of his Vortexians...Terrible machines perverted by the Anti-Genesis Theorem that stirred in his body."

"He has the Anti-Genesis Theorem too?" Mew commented.

"Yes."

"And the Vortexians...those are those things that were under Solaris' command?"

"That is also correct. Their disgusting malfested form is a result of exposure to the vortexes that Justek hid them in as he built them. Though their numbers were once great, nowadays there are barely more than a thousand of them left. And no doubt the majority of them have been left in Solaris and Lunis' care."

"Speaking of those two, what is their relation to Justek? I know they call themselves his children but..."

"They are not related by blood, if that's what you're wondering. Justek adopted those two when they were just newly born and raised them into adulthood...As did I, as their mother."

"Their...mother?" Kairi murmured out. Her poor little heart couldn't take hearing that.

"You were in a polygamist relationship?" Mew remarked in a mildly shocked tone.

"Things were..._complicated_ back then. But yes, I was the mother of two fledgling Prime Deities whilst being the doting wife of the legendary Elemental Overlord."

"Prime...Deities?" Mew said in an odd way while tilting his head.

"You have heard of Gods of the Sun and Moon like Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi. A Prime Deity is in essence a God of Gods. There is only one representative for their respective domain, and Solaris and Lunis stand at the peak of the Sun and the Moon."

"And for as strong as that makes them sound make no mistake...Justek is a monster that far eclipses them in strength."

"What makes him so strong? Is he just that physically powerful? Or is he cursed-"

"He does not share my curse. The Anti-Genesis Theorem granted him his own unnatural powers...The one you should beware of is his ability to perceive the flaws of the universe."

"The flaws? You talking like...structural defects?"

"In a sense, yes. Think of the dark rifts you and the Dark King utilize in combat. How they aren't a natural part of the universe, but something you make. Those dark rifts fall under the same category of 'flaws' as the likes of vortexes, time portals, wormholes, and even black holes. Not only can Justek perceive these flaws, but he can manipulate them."

"So that would explain how the Corrosive Hannibal and Metal Face were pulled from other timelines. But then...how did he control the likes of Joe Dark?"

"His ability to control minds can be seen as part of his ability to perceive flaws. If he looks deep enough into a person's mind, he can see their weakest point and exploit it to control them. But that's a power that requires so much concentration that he can only control one person at a time."

"So we shouldn't have to worry about him sending anyone but Joe Dark after us...But what I don't get is why pick Joe Dark in the first place? Or for that matter, why did he have him and Lunis kidnap Gabriel?"

"That I don't know. Justek has always been someone who has kept to himself. But the fact that he didn't have Gabriel killed..."

Kairi reacted to that by nervously twitching, but didn't say anything. This time, Riku had something he wanted to say.

"But do you know what he's planning?"

"...I couldn't tell you the specifics. But if its anything like before..." Auris lifted her eyes up and sat a melancholic gaze upon her three guests, "He desires the end of everything."

It was a re-confirmation of what the tablet had spoke of. The attacks on Earth were only the prologue. Justek had much, much bigger plans in mind.

Auris glimpsed over at Riku and gave him a small, taunting smile before setting her sights back on Mew and telling him, "The two millennium spent in his cage will have dulled his power quite a bit...But never forget that in his prime he fought my husband to a standstill. **That **is your enemy."

After hearing all this information on their foes, Riku watched his brother cross his arms against his chest and boldly declare, "I'm not going to back down just because he's frighteningly strong. He screwed up his plans the moment he targeted Earth AND Sancturia. So now he can look forward to the ass-kicking the three of us are gonna hand him!"

He turned to Kairi and she nearly jumped out of her skin as he flashed a smile.

"U-Ummm...R-Right..." She meekly agreed.

"But first, shouldn't you worry about Lunis?" Auris cheekily remarked.

"O-Of course! I hadn't forgotten about them!" Mew started rolling his arm around in the air as he proclaimed, "It hasn't been an hour yet but I don't think there'd be any harm in striking out early!"

He then turned and thrust his pointer finger at the door to say to Kairi, "So lets go moving Kairi!"

Her mind had been thrown into such disarray that she obeyed Mew's request to go without hesitation. Before she dragged her feet out the door though she turned back and stared at her mother. No words were exchanged. Just stares.

When Kairi wandered out the door, for the first time, Auris seemed hurt. It was a wound of her own making, and Riku hoped to god it'd penetrate deep into what little remained of her heart.

He started to head out too when suddenly Mew's arm blocked the way and he cautiously murmured, "Where do you think you're going Riku?"

Mew turned around and stared him in the eyes with a puzzled glance and slowly shook his head as he whispered, "I wanna know right now what the hell you were thinking back then."

The tinge of anger he still felt towards Auris made him lash out quietly against his brother, "You can't seriously be defending her actions brother. She withheld what she knew about the future."

"So you up and decide to kill her?!" Mew threw his arms in the air and had a blatantly flabbergasted look in his eyes, "That's a serious escalation of the issue here Riku!"

"I know she's a pretty face Mew, but-"

"Whoa, hold on," Mew interrupted and took a step back, lowering his head and shaking one hand out until he firmly pushed his palm towards his brother, "You seriously did not just go there with me."

He stepped back up to wag his pointer finger at Riku and tell him, "For your information she did the same 'withholding information' thing on me when I came and fought Gravitus. But she had her reasons and in the end I don't think everything would've turned out ok if she HAD told me what was going to happen."

"Like...did you even try and ask her _why_ she keeps that information under lock and key? Or were you locked into kill mode the moment you stepped through that door?"

Mew's harsh critique made Riku's heart slowly sink to the bottom of his gut. And from there feelings of immense guilt surfaced to the top in their place.

"I-I'm sorry brother..." He said with his eyes beginning to sag, "I...I let my emotions get the better of me..."

Mew perked his brows up slightly and said following a sigh, "I'm not the one you need to be apologizing too."

Riku started swerving his head towards Auris but Mew firmly told him, "Not her. I'm talking about Kairi."

"She was already going through enough emotional trauma before she saw you attempting to choke her mother to death. So I don't care how you plan on doing it, but that apology **is** coming out of your mouth before the day is over. Got it?"

Riku took a few seconds to nod his head and reply, "...I understand."

Mew then smiled, patted a hand down on Riku's shoulder, and told him in a chipper tone, "Good. Now, lets go to the moon!"

With some...complex emotions weighing him down, Riku had no choice but to head out of the witch's house for the time being. Mew stuck behind for a moment to take one last look at Auris.

She leaned back into the couch and murmured to him, "Do you hate me now, Mew?"

Mew closed his eyes, slumped his shoulders and said after a long sigh, "See you later Auris. Hopefully."

He headed out the door, leaving Auris stuck in a void of silence. She reached down for her bottle of whiskey and started to crane her head back to drink from it. But she didn't even make it halfway before realizing it had been drained down to the last drop.

She stared into the bottle and found it looked just as hollow as she felt. She then took the bottle and threw it into the wall past the couches, where it shattered to pieces onto the floor. She then slowly shook her head, and sank into her couch in a deep, depressive slump...

_Next Time: The DNA Nemesis_


	14. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13: Invader from the Stars**

Mew left Auris behind and picked up the pace to catch up with his brother and Kairi. To say that the last few minutes were tense was the understatement of the millennium. And considering the circumstances, Mew found he'd have to be the metaphorical knife cutting the tension between Riku and Kairi.

He dashed past Riku and only glanced back for a moment. His head was hung and he was deep in thought.

"_God Riku, why did you have to go and do that huh?" _He didn't feel hatred towards his brother. Not even disappointment. If there was a word to describe this feeling, Mew didn't know it. It was one of those more complex emotions.

But this wasn't the time to bug Riku for answers. Not when Kairi suffered the worst out of all this.

"_She's had it the roughest out of all of us, and now she's probably not going to trust her mother ever again..." _Mew wanted to think about everything Auris said regarding Justek, but his mind kept going back to Kairi. So with a quick "Tsk!" he picked up the pace a little more until he wound up near the South side of the city.

Kairi was standing dangerously close to the edge and the cold winds ruffled her hair back. Mew approached her slowly and quietly and addressed her with a simple "Hey".

How she reacted could barely quality as a flinch. Her head merely turned around and she pulled her feet back onto stable ground.

"...Hey." She gasped out with as much "oomph" as a slowly deflating balloon.

"_Well, this feels familiar..." _Mew kept to himself as he crossed his arms and stood at her side. This time around he was just going to cut to the chase.

"Kairi, I really think you should stay here and hash this out with your mom. Riku and I can handle Justek."

Her glare turned ferocious and after a long pause of silence she growled at him, "Did you know?"

"...W-Well you see..." Mew found himself in her crosshairs and immediately resorted to acting awkward, and rubbed the back of his head.

"DID. YOU. _KNOW_?!"

"...Yeah, I did," Mew could _feel _her the anger in her glare heat up until it was burning a hole through his skull, "But before you yell at me I think I should tell you...!"

That held her back, but it wouldn't for long. At least now Mew wouldn't have to speak quickly to get his point across in time, "I wasn't hiding it from you to hurt you or anything. Its just that you and your mom have to discuss that on your own. A third party like me shouldn't get involved."

"..." Kairi's eyes sank and as she looked at the ground Mew remarked, "So I really gotta insist that you stay home now."

"Forget it, I can't even look my mom in the eyes right now without wanting to throw up..." Kairi turned back towards the edge of the city and with an angered glare poised towards the sky she held her hand up and remarked, "Right now I just wanna take all this anger..."

"And use it to smash Justek's skull in!" She proclaimed as she clenched her hand shut.

"That's the...spirit?" Mew scratched the side of his head with one finger and had a hard time not grinning nervously.

He then crossed his arms and said, "But save your energy. We gotta go to the moon first."

She turned her head then lowered her arm. Her eyes darted to the left side of her head and she narrowed her gaze behind Mew. Mew turned around and saw Riku standing cautiously away from the two. Kairi ruffled her nose and quickly looked away from him.

"He better not be coming with us Mew." She whispered.

"What do you expect me to do? Tell him 'no' like he's an overly attached puppy?" Mew whispered back.

Kairi glared back at Riku again and this time let out a haughty "Hmph!" before promptly declaring with her eyes closed, "Fine! But if I even hear him breathing I'm going to smack him in the face again! And this time I **won't **hold back."

Mew turned around, shrugged and remarked, "Weeeeell, you heard her Riku."

Riku gave a drawn out nod in response, and Mew looked back towards the sky while sighing until there was no more air in his lungs to expunge.

"_Everything's really screwed up when I'm the only one with my head on straight..."_

"_Oh that's a riot..." _"D." suddenly chimed in.

"_Shut up you." _Mew barked back.

He then pointed up at the ice barrier and started moving his arm down an arc, "I decided to get a feel for the ice the moment Lunis mentioned a tunnel to the moon. There's a big hole in the barrier on the opposite end of the planet."

"...So we got to fly from one pole to the other?" Kairi remarked, "I guess I can activate the Angel Drive to keep pace, but..."

"Nah don't waste your energy like that," Mew shook his head then knelt down, thrusting a thumb over his shoulder to his back, "Just hitch a ride on the S.S. Mew!"

"..." Mew could feel Kairi's glare on his back but she nevertheless got right on top of him and wrapped her arms and legs around him to hold on tight.

"You better not be reckless Mew." She warned.

"Me? Reckless? Naaaaah!" Mew stood up with a hearty smile then leaped straight off the edge of Sancturia.

"Hold on tight!" Mew proclaimed as they descended for the icy waters at incredibly high speeds. Mew could feel Kairi pressing her face against the back of his neck and holding on tighter.

When they hit the surface the water splashed up a hundred feet high. Mew darted right through it, his legs moving so fast they felt like they were on fire.

"YAAAAAHOOOOOOO!" He hollered out at the top of his lungs.

"S-Slow down a bit Mew!" Kairi proclaimed, her voice barely reaching thanks to how fast he was running.

"Slow down? I could still go faster if I wanted!" He remarked, having already gotten close to the little land masses separating Alaska from Asia.

"F-Faster?!" Kairi's panicked cry was misconstrued and Mew chuckled at it.

"If you insist!" He leaned his head forward slightly and his legs became a blur against the water. Kairi was now practically fused with his body from how tight she was holding on. With her chest pressed against his back he could feel her heart racing. Deep down, a part of her was enjoying this.

Mew took a moment to look up in the sky and saw Riku keeping pace up there. With a small smile he thought, _"Neat. We got both the sky and sea covered!"_

Mew then grimaced and looked down in the water. A few shadows were rising, pushing the water up by his side.

"Heads up! Vortexians at 3'o'clock!"

"Huh?!" Kairi raised her head right as Mew took a hard turn to the left to evade one of the malfested creatures as it breached the surface.

It was a large squid-like creature with an actual drill for its head. The moment it failed to hit Mew it dove right back down into the water, where the propulsion of its drill gave it the speed to keep pace with its prey.

Mew moved left to right to evade its attacks but found he was at a disadvantage here, "So slight problem...I can't attack them underwater while running!"

"I-I could hurl my staff at them like a harpoon, but if I let my hands go then..."

"Don't worry about that!" Mew hastily swung his hands back and cupped them onto Kairi's butt. She flinched, and Mew could feel her staring daggers onto the back of his head.

"F-Fine, I guess this works!" She fortunately kept her priorities straight and raised herself up, summoning her staff and keeping an eye on the blurred shadows in the water.

"There's multiple bogeys on our tail Mew!" She proclaimed as she threw her staff down and took out one of their pursuers via impalement.

"More Vortexians?! Sheesh, I bet you could fill a Pokedex with all the different kinds there are!" Right as Mew mentioned that a new species breached the waters and flew at them with a pair of large, fang filled mouths.

"A two-headed shark?!" Mew ducked under the creature and Kairi stabbed the staff through the beast's gullet. She nearly fell off when Mew rose back up.

Kairi kept harpooning their pursuers while Mew focused on the straight ahead path. They were nearing Hawaiian territory when suddenly, Mew sensed the waters moving in great amounts.

"_Uh-oh, that's not a good omen..." _He quickly turned left and saw this massive tidal wave being sent towards the island state. And from it emerged a hundred-limb Kraken of Kaiju-esque scale.

"Making a hard detour here! Hang on!" Mew made a sharp turn left and Kairi's body bobbed around.

"W-Whoa!" When she stabilized she remarked, "What did I say about being-?!"

When she turned around and saw the giant Kraken and its wave of destruction she clammed up. Mew grit his teeth and grumbled, "Getting real sick of these innocent people getting dragged into this!"

Just a mile away from the Kraken, Mew bent down and shot off the water straight towards it. He flew at blistering hot speeds and swung his right leg out, while Kairi held on for dear life.

"Take THIS!" He proclaimed as he drove his foot straight through the titan's mechanical skull. When he burst through the other side he left a cavernous hole in the beast's body that caused it to deteriorate in seconds, but not before its weight dragged itself down into the ocean and sent more water towards the already record breaking tidal wave.

"Oh no you don't!" Mew flew over the tidal wave and descended in front of it. He turned around, closed his eyes for a moment, then let out a few tiny coughs.

"Ahem...!" As the tidal wave's shadow drowned them both Mew's eyes shone with power as he glared the tidal wave straight on. All those waters were turned around and moved away from Hawaii, where it'd become harmless in a matter of time.

Mew breathed a sigh of relief then dropped back to the ocean's surface and resumed running towards the South, where the only distractions afterwards wound up being more of those Vortexians. But Kairi handled those just fine.

"_Thank god all the nukes were disabled a decade ago, or the sky'd be lit up with nuclear flames right around now..." _Mew thought.

The trip from point A to point B took roughly fifteen minutes. The end wasn't heralded by the huge chunk of ice called Antarctica, but rather the big gaping hole in the ice barrier in the sky.

"Here we are! Now was that so bad?" Mew slowed down the pace and looked back at Kairi. Her face was a little green.

"...I'm feeling so sick to my stomach right now..."

"How? You haven't eaten anything all day!" Mew chuckled a bit as he kicked off the water and started beelining for the tunnel. He looked up and to his right and saw Riku had already gotten there.

"_What? Did he get the enemy free route or something?!" _He floated on up a few feet away from his brother and then let Kairi off on his left, just to keep some distance between the two.

Mew then looked at the tunnel leading off-world and noticed something peculiar. A magic barrier was blocking the way.

"Hooo boy, I know where this is going..." Mew had basically determined the pattern of things well enough to yell out with confidence, "Ok! Bring out another guy from another world! We'll beat anyone you send our way!"

He got the last answer he ever expected when all of a sudden the shrouded moon deity appeared before the trio without any light or sound to signal their arrival. Silently, with the wind brushing their cloak, Lunis peered down at them through their demonic mask.

Mew fluttered his eyelashes then raised his fists slightly. Kairi was a lot more forceful with her introduction by summoning her staff and taking a hard swing straight at Lunis.

"What? Couldn't wait for us to get to the moon?" Mew joked to break the ice between them.

Lunis was unnaturally still, and the only sign that they were alive was when they finally chose to speak.

"Why do you fight?" Was an odd thing to lead off with, to say the least.

"Why do I fight?" Mew perked his eyes up slightly and gave a quick, reasonable sounding answer, "Cause I have things I want to protect. Duh."

"Right now I'd just be satisfied cracking your ugly mask in half and getting Gabriel back!" Kairi proclaimed while squeezing her hands around her staff, her intimidation failing to make the Moon Deity quiver.

Lunis paused then leered over at Riku, "And what about you?"

Riku had nothing but silence to give in return. When he did choose to speak, it was in the form of his own question, "Why do **you** fight?"

"Huh?" Mew remarked as his gaze went from his brother to Lunis.

The side of the Moon Deity's cloth ruffled to signify an arm moving underneath. They continued to stare at Riku as they replied, "If you can give no answer then I will give none in return myself."

"...Hmm, very well," Riku lowered his arms and set his cold gaze upon their foe, "Then you'll be waiting for us back on the moon, correct?"

"**If** you can overcome the obstacles in your path," Lunis drew their hand back down and remarked, "But first I wish to apologize on behalf of my brother."

"Really." Mew had his suspicions.

"He's loyal to father but has always done things his own to make him happy. And this time it led to him scarring your planet and killing thousands of people," Lunis bowed their head slightly then remarked, "But I won't drag anyone into this fight. You will get the sole attention and respect your strength deserves."

"Well, schucks, you don't have to go that far..." Mew got clocked in the side of his gut by Kairi's elbow and chuckled afterwards.

"But make no mistake..." The arctic winds began to howl, "I will not underestimate you like my brother did. You may get to leave the planet, but you will never see my father's face!"

Time and space distorted behind the Moon Deity but they vanished independent of the phenomenon. Through the distortion emerged a smooth black triangle that didn't look like it was made of stone, glass, or anything from this planet.

The triangle darted down to the left, then up above where it started, finally going back down to the left. It then dashed around in the pattern of two smaller triangles, making a strange chirping sound with every advance. The trio's eyes were locked onto it, hypnotized by it, only reacting when it stopped where it began and started heating up with a red glow.

The triangle trembled, like an egg ready to hatch. Mew and Riku drew their swords and Mew commented, "They weren't kidding. This one's going to be a major step up from the last two!"

Four wiggling limbs stretched out from the back of the triangle, two orange and two sky blue. They twisted together like strands of DNA and the triangle broke apart, revealing the occupant hidden within. A bipedal alien attempting to mimic the human body stood before them. Its tapering legs and black abdomen were its best efforts, but the rest of the body could only capture the shape and not the qualities that made a human, well, human.

It face was bluish-green with a blunt protrusion on each side of its head. Its white circular eyes were set inside of of rectangular black eye sockets. A purple, crystalline organ was strapped inside of its chest, pulsing with light like a heartbeat. Only its pupils moved to look at its guests, the silent monster beaming with curiosity...And a desire for conflict. And its name was...

**#386: The DNA Pokemon Deoxys**

Mew poised his blade at the otherworldly creature and looked around, muttering to himself, "Aaaany second now..."

A certain vial was supposed to drop, but never came. Mew edged back slightly and thought aloud, "Huh...Must've run out!"

Deoxys' body flashed and it came flying at Mew at ramming speed, hitting the blunt edge of his blade with its head. A purple shockwave erupted from the creature's skull as it managed to drag Mew away from his allies.

Its form had changed slightly. Now its limbs were more sharp, while its legs had grown a pointed protrusion on each kneecap. The shape of its head was triangular, with the sides slim and pointed.

Mew gripped his blade in both hands and used his full strength to shove Deoxys away. The alien was assaulted from behind by waves of fire from Riku's blade and the blunt throw of Kairi's staff. It turned around and shifted to its Normal Form, where its intertwined limbs turned into a clay-like mimicry of human hands before its chest.

Bright purple energy gathered between its palms and caused the air to shake.

"Oh no you don't!" Mew got Deoxys in a headlock and dragged it back, causing its beam to misfire into the ice barrier, "Its all yours guys!"

Riku raised his sword ready to strike but Kairi butted in his way and charged the Pokemon head-on. Deoxys wrapped its nimble limbs back around Mew's waist then flung it overhead right as Kairi took her swing. Mew was struck hard in his back and even heard a crack from the spine as he went flying straight past Deoxys.

"Sorry!" He could hear Kairi saying as he spun back upright to recover. Without an obstacle in-between the two Kairi took another crack at Deoxys.

The Pokemon's body flashed and it morphed into a new form, one where its body was built like a tank with thicker arms, thicker head, and sturdier legs. It raised its limbs up and briefly turned red as Kairi's staff struck it. And the moment after it thrust its right limbs into Kairi's gut with twice the power she threw at it.

"Khhhh!" Kairi coughed up a wad of saliva and was launched back at hypersonic speeds. Riku was fortunately right there to intercept her, taking careful care to only touch her waist.

But the moment she caught wind of who her savior was she threw her arm at his face and proclaimed, "Let go of me!"

Deoxys returned to its Normal Form and raised its right arm up, only for Mew's blade to slice through it like butter. The Pokemon turned around with a mild look of shock and even Mew blinked his eyes and muttered, "I uhhh...didn't think that'd go through. My bad!"

The glowing crevice on its shoulder trembled and a new pair of limbs grew to replace the old. Mew then remarked, "Oh right, I forgot about that."

Deoxys flashed and then vanished as a streak of orange and blue. Mew followed its presence to his left but wasn't fast enough to stop it from ramming across his body, turning around, and then ramming into him again.

Mew's eyes flashed with vigor as he tried to keep an eye on Deoxys' form. He knew that right now it had shed most of its excess skin and one limb per arm to boost its speed to the point of becoming impossible to trace by the human eye.

"_He's hitting me with such extreme speed!" _Mew started crossing his arms before his body to alleviate some of the force Deoxys put into its strikes.

After a few dozens side strikes Deoxys went straight for Mew's back. In the time it'd take him to turn around, the Pokemon would already have left its mark on his spine.

"Crap!" He proclaimed before steel rang out in his ears. He glanced back and saw Riku had gone into Light Form to intercept and block Deoxys with his katana.

"This isn't the time to be playing around brother. Lets end this now." Riku remarked while looking over his own shoulder.

Mew sighed and drew his sword out to the side, pulling the white trigger to go into Light Form, all while taking a moment to _apologize_ to his deadlocked foe, "Sorry about this Deoxys...I would've liked to have a serious fight with you, but maybe some other time?"

After Mew flashed a smile Riku backed away. Deoxys continued bolting forward at high-speeds and rammed straight into Mew. It reverted to its Normal Form and attempted to charge a Hyper Beam at point-blank range.

"Nice try buddy!" Mew shoved the Pokemon back with a slight nudge of his elbow and then summoned a reflective barrier that returned the beam right back to its maker.

Deoxys was looking a lot like swiss cheese after the energy splashed over its body. Mew and Riku then stood back-to-back and lunged at the Pokemon in unison, cutting through it diagonally down the shoulders. They then quickly snapped back into place and turned around with their swords locked into their sheathes.

Deoxys was split into four pieces with the white energy within it fighting to pull the parts back together. Mew and Riku floated away from it triumphant and looked to the barrier.

Mew then commented in a rather flaccid tone of voice, "Is it just me or are these guys not very good at distractions?"

He looked at Kairi and her gaze seemed to be going between the two of them. When he looked at Riku he saw him narrowing his gaze at the barrier and muttering, "Its not going away."

The feel of the air started to change. The purity of it was discarded. A black wind howled in its place. Mew slowly turned his head around and watched as a small glass object similar to a cat's eye marble descended upon Deoxys. It was orange and blue on the inside, but heavily exuded the cursed power of the Anti-Genesis Theorem.

"A...Mega Stone?" Mew uttered those words while simultaneously being at a total loss _for _words.

Deoxys suddenly snapped back together, ensnared the floating stone around its limbs, and shoved it into the jewel on its chest. It was enveloped in an inverted neon orb that radiated with pure energy. The air trembled much more than before, to the point that it was like being involved in a magnitude 10 earthquake.

Mew and Riku readied their swords once again and Mew sighed, "It can never be that easy, can it?"

The shell binding Deoxys in place split wide open and the alien was now completely changed. It had shed all of its skin and replaced it with pure, solid starlight. The jewel on its chest remained, having now turned into a flashy rainbow crystal with five tiny points sticking out of it. Deoxys' arms were now permanently similar to a humans, and even as they floated in place they left afterimages in their wake. The shape of Deoxys' head was like its Normal Form, while the protrusions extending out were a mix of that form, Attack Form, and Speed Form's as well. And its eyes were bright red, like a red dwarf.

Those eyes gave off a piercing glint of radiant ruby. Its new skin complimented its form like a layer of light sapphires. And its aura shone brightly like a curtain of...pearls.

**The Cosmic Traveler Pokemon: Mega Deoxys**

Mew felt his skin quivering and he dragged his frontal teeth along his bottom lip, ending on a smile, "Well, so he might be a _little_ harder to take down now, but-"

Deoxys' eyes shone and it moved forward, in the blink of an eye striking Mew in the gut with a hard punch. And Riku felt it too. And Kairi as well. All of them were hit at the exact same second, with Deoxys' silhouette appearing before them.

When it was done it appeared behind the trio and stared at its hands, both front and back, while its opponents staggered to recover from the winding blows. Mew managed to turn around first despite his arm clutched tightly onto his stomach.

"O-Okay tough guy...Lets go!" He said excitedly as he thrust his sword at the Pokemon's back to draw all its attention onto him.

Deoxys swung its head back and another glint shone from its eye. As Mew swung his sword back in anticipation for his foe's move, Riku flew in front of him and charged Deoxys head-on, dragging him away from the fight.

"I'll handle this for now. You worry about her!"

Mew looked straight to Kairi and saw that she was coughing up blood, some of which dripped onto her shirt. His eyes widened and he glided over, helping to prop her head up while using his power of Light on her stomach to soothe the pain a little.

"He got you good, didn't he?" Mew murmured out of concern.

After a few more ragged coughs Kairi lifted her weary eyes and remarked in a forceful tone, "D-Do I save my energy now?"

"Not a chance. Go wild!" Mew gave his approval and with a terse nod Kairi immediately slammed down on her Angel Drive to power-up. The change in forms helped alleviate the rest of the pain in her stomach, and she celebrated by effortlessly spinning her staff around to both of her hands.

"Gladly!" She clutched her staff firmly behind her back and was raring to go.

While Mew comforted Kairi Riku had managed to get Deoxys locked in battle with him alone. The evolved Pokemon brought its hands close together before its chest and started charging energy. The expanding sphere alone managed to push Riku back, forcing him to dig his blade in harder.

He lit up his blade and managed to put a cut into the sphere, the energy spilling out in the form of a lightning bolt to the ice barrier above, which knocked loose a few massive chunks of ice. Deoxys smashed the remaining energy between its hands then thrust its glowing palms towards Riku's chest.

Riku guarded the attacks with the back of his wings to free up his arm to slice at the Pokemon. Deoxys sped to the left in the blink of an eye to avoid it and approached closer with its opulent gaze aimed solely upon him.

Deoxys flailed its arms out and Riku met it with a few gentle strokes of his blade. The seizure inducing flurry of lights displayed that the two were evenly matched. When they're clash ended Riku had the tip of his blade at Deoxys' neck while the Pokemon had its hands inches from his chest.

The two looked eye-to-eye and backed away with a slight hint of mutual respect towards one another. The shade of the descending ice chunks darkened like the abyss and the two backed away from it, the speed of which the closest fell threatening to drag them down in a wave of pressure.

"RAAAHHHH!" Kairi suddenly came flying in screaming like a banshee and smashed her staff into the back of the ice. Deoxys' eyes widened as it found itself pinned against the ice and hurtling through the air at Mach 10.

Mew rocketed past the ice, got behind Deoxys, then clocked it in the back with his elbow. Cracks started to form on the ice slowly, then instantly covered the whole thing until it was reduced to dust. Deoxys quivered as Mew took his elbow off and grabbed his katana in both hands.

He smiled as he went for an upward slice. Deoxys turned red for a moment as the blade connected and then spun around to throw that power back into Mew's stomach via its palm. Mew thrust his right arm up and blocked it with his gauntlet. His wrist bone cracked slightly and he grit his teeth, grunting out to the Pokemon, "I can take it! So bring it on!"

Deoxys' eyes shone and it let out a strange, echoing chirp. The aura surrounding it grew a little bigger, and it continued pressing on. A crack started to form in Mew's gauntlet, and they filled with energy.

"_Uh-oh..." _Mew started to pull his arm back but Deoxys refused to let go.

Kairi came in and smashed Deoxys in the back of its head, interrupting its concentration. She then stopped in place and pushed her staff down, using it as support to flip-kick Deoxys higher into the air. In that same motion she twirled around and around, carrying herself up so she could repeatedly smack Deoxys with her staff and feet.

When she got above Deoxys she turned upright and smashed her staff down towards its head. Deoxys raised its arms up to block it and only fell roughly even with where Mew was. But Mew took full advantage of the opportunity to draw his sword out of his sheath and in one swift forward motion.

He got behind Deoxys and had slashed the Pokemon across its bare chest, leaving a wide scar of light that extended out from its body. Kairi turned into a bolt of light and zipped down and around where Mew attacked to etch a box around Deoxys.

Mew then turned to his side and snapped his fingers to set off a square pillar of light with the Pokemon stuck in the middle. With Kairi out of the way, of course!

Deoxys burned within the pure light for a few seconds. Then its arms stretched out, shattering the pillar with a clench of its fists. It then turned around and rose above its foes, its aura seeming even a tiny bit bigger than before.

Mew grimaced at the Pokemon and cautiously drew his blade back into his sheath, while Kairi took a defensive stance with her staff. Deoxys appeared in front of each of them before they could even blink and thrusts its palms into their stomachs, firing off a point-blank Hyper Beam.

"NNGHH!" "AHHH!" The two grunted as their bodies burned up under the immense pressure the energy tossed their way. Even Kairi's aura couldn't stand up against it for long.

Parts of their clothes were singed off and Mew had a hard time keeping his eyes open due to the heat coming off his skin. He grit his teeth in a smile and remarked, "I'm not the only one noticing that its getting stronger right?!"

Deoxys singled Mew out and rammed into him from the front at three different angles simultaneously, roughing up the damage inflicted moments ago. Mew kept his hand on his sword and tried to wait for an opening. But when Deoxys' eyes shone once more, its speed increased just enough to go beyond Mew's ability to follow.

Mew felt a cold sweat on the back of his neck as Deoxys went behind him and fired off another Hyper Beam. Mew barely turned in time to use light to create a multi-layered wall to hold it off.

"_Its got access to all its Forms specialties at the same time! And its like every few seconds all of its stats go up by two!" _When the last of his barrier layers went down Mew gathered the energy into his blade and sliced down to send a crescent wave through the beam and into Deoxys.

The Pokemon shook slightly and its eyes shone again. Mew bit his teeth down and glanced down at the black trigger on his katana. Looking back, he saw Kairi eyeing her Neo Drive too.

"_Is it REALLY getting that out of hand?"_ He wondered to himself. Given the situation, Riku may have been considering the same course of action as him.

But when he glanced at his brother he saw him in a natural state of calm. His eyes were closed and it looked like not even the sound of a droplet hitting water could make him budge.

"Uhhh, Riku?" Mew was a little concerned.

Deoxys let out a shrill chirp and its already microscopic pupils shrank further down. It then took its hands up above its head and floated up and away from its opponent, taking all its immeasurable power and conforming it down to the shape of a large purple, otherworldly shaded sphere.

"_Hooooo boy, this IS getting out of hand now!" _As Mew went right for the black trigger he felt darkness rise on his left.

Mew glanced out from the corner of his eye and saw two large, wide claws of darkness emerging out of Riku's back and rising over his shoulders. The claws stretched down and crossed one another before his chest like a plate of armor, covering up most of his holy garb. But the angelic clothing, or nay, any of his features, disappeared upon making contact with the darkness.

The darkness hardened into actual armor, creating thin strands like yarn to wrap around his sides and mesh both back and front together. The darkness continued to descend to the bottom of his robe and attached themselves to it in the form of a row of black feathers, with that part of the robe becoming a light shade of gray. The angelic wings rose to his shoulder blades, making room for a pair of black demonic wings in their place. Darkness coiled out from his right hand to form a dagger made of onyx, while the katana in his left hand grew a few inches longer and the blade shone with a sharpness to rival all other metals.

Mew's jaw dropped as he felt how much power Riku was wielding at this very moment. It was absurd! A perfect union of light and darkness was something Mew hadn't even considered in his wildest dreams until now!

"I...will handle this..." Riku whispered confidently as he crossed his arms and laid his weapons bare by his shoulders.

One second later he was behind Deoxys as it launched its signature attack. The psychic energy was swallowed up in a dark void never to be seen or heard from again. The Pokemon lurched back, its chest pounded furiously by penetrating streaks of black and white energy, a couple of which breached its backside.

Deoxys trembled violently, its pupils darting every which way as the energy shattered like glass, and its Mega Stone was forcefully expunged from its body. The Mega Stone trembled in the place of its wielder. Slowly, but surely, cracks formed in that cursed power and soon led to its destruction.

Deoxys, having returned to normal, wiggled its right limbs out towards what it had lost. To know power. To taste power...Only to lose it all in an instant. The Pokemon did not have to make a sound for Mew to understand the sadness it felt at that moment.

Deoxys turned its head and Riku had his blade at its throat. With a stern glare he remarked, "I know you're listening Lunis. Tell your father to return this alien back to its home right now."

In just a second a rift opened up behind Deoxys, a glimpse into its bright and beautiful world visible through the dark fog. The Pokemon glanced at Riku, then to the portal, and decided that revenge wasn't worth dying for as it fled the scene a moment after. And then the rift sealed up, leaving Riku feeling comfortable in releasing the power of his curious new form for now.

Mew wasn't going to give his brother a break though. He flew right up to him with a big, cheek-raised grin and his fists squeezed up to his face.

"That. Was. COOL!" He exclaimed like he'd just been made a few years younger, "What WAS that?! You had light and darkness working together in perfect harmony! Oh MAN you gotta teach me how to use that, seriously!"

Riku's face turned a light shade of red and after a forceful cough he remarked, "Sorry brother, but I don't think you'd be able to use this power."

"Huh? Why not?" Mew pouted with a slumped head.

"Because first of all, it requires being calm." Riku cracked a mild smile and Mew found himself getting a little infuriated over it.

"What?! I can totally be calm! Need I remind you, Mr. Stoic Pants, that you came from _me_?!"

"...We'll talk about it after we're done alright?" Riku offered.

"Yeah. Gotta have our priorities." Mew let out a gentle sigh but smiled before he looked back to where the shield was. Though it took him a moment to find it, since everything got a little topsy-turvy for a moment there.

The barrier was gone, and now nothing was standing between them and the moon...

"_Boy wouldn't that be the day?" _Mew murmured while rubbing the back of his head as he floated over to Kairi, who had deactivated the Angel Drive.

"Looking forward to going to the moon?" He asked.

"I did at some point, but after visiting the other planets?" Kairi replied with a melancholic sigh, "I dunno...its kinda lost its charm."

"Hehehe! We'll just have to wait and see!" Mew cheerfully remarked. He then moved a little bit forward and bent down, offering Kairi another quick ride to preserve her strength.

She got on his back and held on like before. As he got up Riku floated up next to them and said, "We need to hit the tunnel as fast as we can if we're going to have any chance of making it in time."

Kairi bluntly swung her head away from Riku and let out a "Hmph!" Mew groaned slightly then nudged his head at the tunnel to get Riku to go on ahead. But being reminded of how the two felt towards each other got Mew thinking.

"_I can't just let them stay like this, but...What can I do to help them understand one another? If that's even possible?" _As he flew towards the tunnel he gaze out towards where space would be and remembered something else.

"_And Alex is out there somewhere fighting Solaris. Hrmmm..." _There was so much he felt he had to do. But...could he get it all done properly? His decision would no doubt change the course of history...

_Next Time: Two Halves, Reconnected_


	15. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14: The Formless Oblivion**

This would be the second time that Riku will have departed from his home world, his visit here feeling just as brief as it was the day he was born. But this time he was leaving with a bit of dread in his gut. A melancholic feeling swelled, making him wonder if he might even make it back again.

Space, and the moon, awaited him at the end of a long, curved tunnel of ice. Lunis, much like Solaris, was but a prelude to the fight against the true enemy, Justek. The two Prime Deities had displayed incredible, mystifying feats during their short appearances before him. And if that was what they were capable of, then Justek truly would be a monster in comparison.

"Heads up!" Mew suddenly blurted halfway up the tunnel, drawing Riku's attention forward once more.

Multiple Vortexians skated along the ice towards them at blistering speeds. It was hard to tell, but they looked a little like rabbits. The friction they caused by moving gathered energy into their backs and caused slicing lasers to spew from their backs. A tightly weaved net formed between them, leaving narrow openings for the two Overlords to flip through.

This wasn't a fight worth fighting. All the three of them had to do was dodge and press forward. Though, to credit Kairi's efforts was a little generous. She had to cling tightly onto Mew as he rolled around just to make it through some of the gaps in time.

There were at least a dozen of these walls awaiting them before the Vortexians seemed content to just give up and break down. With the obstacles passed Mew floated closer to Riku right as he remarked, "Oxygen levels are going to drop soon."

"I know I know!" Mew replied with dry enthusiasm while he gave both himself and Kairi a layer of air to allow them to breathe. Riku, of course, did the same.

The tunnel suddenly made a sharp turn downward and forced the two to descend upon a light gray, rocky crater. They made a soft landing in the center and looked around. The tunnel wrapped around the crater's edge, but there was a perfectly rectangular exit carved out directly in front of them.

Mew bent down to let Kairi off and she stumbled around a bit, looking woozy in the eyes.

"U-Ugh...I'm never riding you again Mew." She remarked upon finding stable footing. Mew snickered, and she promptly glared at him. He shrugged his shoulders up and shook his head with a chuckle.

"So, this is the moon..." Mew crossed his arms and looked straight at the exit.

"Almost. Lets exit this tunnel and take a look around." Riku suggested.

"You read my mind Riku! Lets go!" Mew took a hasty step forward and hit the ground with so much force that he bounced up and slowly floated back down. His head hung forward and he danced around on one leg for a bit. Then he settled on the ground and coughed into his fist.

"...R-Right. Low gravity. Guess we're gonna have to take it a little slow this time." He muttered that last part in an annoyed tone and walked his way out of the tunnel with his allies in tow.

Riku lagged behind a bit because of Kairi staring daggers into his face. But when he got out he only took a brief glance upward and then looked straight ahead. He'd seen plenty of sparkling stars and nebulas over the past two years. This wasn't anything special.

Even his easily excitable brother glanced up with a hand laid over his forehead and murmured in a dull tone, "Yeeeaaah...This is about what I expected. We already did enough stargazing when we were going after the Planetary Aurians."

He slowly looked back and waved a hand past the tunnel to mention, "We can't even get a good long look at our home."

Riku peered over his shoulder then turned around to greet his home, only to find it blocked off to him by the thick layer of ice Lunis had surrounded it with. Her claim of creating a complete global blockade was no longer hyperbolic now that he could see pretty much the entire thing with his whole two eyes.

And yet, looking at it from afar, it didn't feel like this had been entirely done by Lunis' own power. Ice is the perfect antithesis to fire like the moon is to the sun, but Riku could _sense_ this barrier unlike what happened with Solaris' flames.

Though this was just theorizing in lieu of anything better to think about at the moment. The barrier was a threat regardless of its origin.

"Even once we stop Lunis and remove the barrier, the Earth won't have sunlight for an hour." He remarked.

"Yeah, this really sucks..." Mew sighed as he leaned his head back slightly and rubbed the back of it.

"Well then why drag it out? Lets find that cloaked bastard and give them an ass-kicking!" Kairi proclaimed with one fist gripped tightly before her chest.

"Yeah, but...where are they?" Mew wondered.

Riku briefly closed his eyes and took in a deep breath to get a little more in tune with the unfamiliar rocky landscape of the moon. He tapped his left toes gently on the ground to send a slight pulse out. There were craters, obviously, but there was also something more beyond them.

"There's a building to the south of here." He remarked.

"Heh, could just be the government's secret moon base," Mew joked with a smile, causing Kairi to glare at him again and growl. So Mew's smile sagged as he muttered, "But more than likely, that's where Lunis' holed up."

"Then what are we waiting for? Lets go!" Kairi waved her hand forward over her head and started going on ahead, figuring out how to move in lower gravity one awkward step at a time.

"Aaaaaactually..." Mew suddenly interrupted and rubbed the back of his head some more with a forced smile, "I'm not going to be going with you guys on this one."

Kairi performed the fastest U-Turn Riku had ever seen. Impressive, considering they're in low gravity. Though she was just as baffled as he was by his brother's words, she was far more vocal in saying "What do you mean?" than he was.

Mew stood completely still and looked up at the stars in the sky, "Alex left the planet to chase Solaris, remember? Well he must have been fighting a hard fight, because I can still sense some of his energy trailing off away from the planet."

"You can't be suggesting going after the Phoenix of Destruction by yourself, right?" Riku remarked with a firm look into his brother's eyes, where he saw not a single cloud of doubt looking back.

"I can't believe I'm agreeing with the mother killer, but..." Kairi trotted up to Mew and bonked him on the head with her fist, "Are you insane?!"

Mew rubbed the spot she struck and said with a smile, "Well why not right? Its not like you **need** me to fight Lunis."

"That's not the problem. Splitting up right now is a terrible idea." Riku remarked.

"Yeah," Kairi briefly nodded her head and her eyes started to wilt as she murmured, "Cause knowing your tendency to attract trouble..."

Mew had a hearty chuckle and remarked, "Relax will ya?! I'm not going to die out there! What's the worst Alex can do to me anyways? I already kicked his ass once, so if he wants to be stubborn I'll just do it again!"

Kairi pouted her lips and grumbled to herself. She gave a somewhat antsy glance at Riku and tried to whisper only to Mew, "I...I don't want to be left alone with your brother. Can you _please_ stay here?"

Mew glanced at Riku and leaned his head in closer to try and whisper only to Kairi, "I need you to stick by him and keep him safe. You're the only one I can trust to do it."

He pulled back and Kairi gave him a cautionary remark of, "Really?"

"Really really!" Mew said with a little more volume.

Kairi glanced down at the ground, pulled out her staff in both hands, then clasped them as she said, "So can I whack him if he steps out of line?"

"'Whack' is a bit strong of a word..." Mew tickled the side of his cheek with a finger and smiled, "Just bonk him on the head like you did to me just now and that should keep him in check."

"..." Kairi had this sincere look of melancholy in her eyes as she dispelled her staff and remarked, "Please be safe out there Mew."

"I'll be fine! I'll even leave a trail of my own so you two can catch up once you're done with Lunis!" Mew crossed his arms and briefly parted ways with Kairi so he could have a one-on-one with his brother.

He stood directly at his side and leaned into his ear to whisper, "You heard all that? Now you've got some good incentive to apologize to her. Unless you **want** to go into the final battle with a bruised head."

Mew withdrew with a cheeky smile and gentle chuckle, letting both leave an impression before he turned his back to his brother. But Riku didn't feel comfortable letting him go just like that.

"What is your plan here brother?" He bluntly inquired. When Mew paused Riku took one step forward and found his eyes drooping and his heart feeling heavier than before, "Whatever bond you had with Alex is gone. He's chosen to destroy everything, even those bo-"

"You're wrong." Mew did not restrain himself even in the slightest when he interrupted. He said what was on his mind, and remained composed the whole time.

"I just need to talk to him one more time. That's all." Mew started to squeeze his left fist by his hip. It relaxed after a few seconds, as Mew waved it up by his face and cheerfully said, "Anyways, catch you later! Good luck!"

He then rocketed off into deep space with only a slight trail of energy being left in his wake. When he was too far gone to even be seen as a speck of dust, Kairi took her hand to the back of her hair and brushed some of it over her shoulder, letting out a troubled sigh.

"I'm never going to get him..."

"My brother is hard to understand sometimes." Riku's remark set Kairi's sights on him once again. With a firm pout and ruffled eyebrows she roughly twisted her body around and laid her arms straight down past her hips.

"Lets go..." She grumbled aloud.

Riku thought it best to be quiet around Kairi until he could come up with an apology...If he even could. The unlikely duo walked along the moon's surface by following Riku's directions. The lower gravity meant they had to take their time a bit to get used to things, but once they had adjusted it was relatively smooth sailing from there on out.

The moon was haunting. There was no sound, no wind, throughout the entire place. No life forms were here besides the two of them and their foe, and the threat of space's radiation lingered in the back of their minds the entire time. Cold. Quiet. Yet beautiful in its own way. The moon had its unique qualities to it. But the problems far outweighed the joys.

It was fortunate that the two's destination wasn't far off from the arrival point. Riku felt he couldn't stand another minute thinking to himself about the moon.

Their enemy lied inside of a lonesome palace in the middle of this desolate space rock. It had no beauty to its name on the outside. The walls were lined with the same material as the moon's surface. Glistening silver, similar in its shine to a full moon's light, lied past its rocky walls. It had four corner, each marked by a simple tower with a cone roof. The ceiling was flat, and was lacking in any artillery or otherwise notable protrusions. And the doorway, while tall, was as bland as what'd you'd find in a stereotypical description of such in a children's novel.

Kairi's aggression went from being pointed at Riku to the palace instead. She picked up the pace slightly by hopping forward, letting the moon's gravity carry her along towards the front gates. Riku sighed and kept after her on the ground, and by the time he caught up the two of them were only a hundred feet away from this solemn palace.

The palace itself was only a hundred feet tall, and by craning his head back Riku say a white shade dangling over the edge of the roof. Without saying a word Riku tapped Kairi on the shoulder and guided her narrowed gaze towards what he saw.

She took one hard step forward and clutched her fists by her hips to scream, "Alright you bastard! We caught up with you, so stop hiding and face us!"

Lunis perched their head upright and their cloak nestled atop their body. They budged slightly, vanishing from the top of the palace and arriving before the gates in the blink of an eye. They calmly peered through their demonic mask at both their guests and made the most obvious observation of them all.

"You're down one."

Riku crossed his arms against his chest and remarked, "My brother had something else he had to do."

"That's fine," Lunis replied with a modicum of relief in their voice, "That makes things simpler."

"You're not going to win. So if you value your life, hand over Gabriel right. NOW!" Kairi's proclamation did not perturb the deity of the moon, and so she swung her summoned staff down at her feet, "Fine! Have it your way!"

"I have a question." Riku remarked, his relaxed tone a contrast to Kairi's 'raring-to-go' attitude.

"I do not have an answer for you still." Lunis immediately jumped on the reply.

"No," Riku shook his head, "Its not about that."

He arched his brows down and bluntly remarked, "Why did you give us an unnecessarily long deadline to reach you?"

Even Lunis' cloak went still as they failed to answer, with Riku picking up the slack for them by dissecting the last few puzzling events out loud, "It hasn't even been an hour. If you didn't want us to make it here, then your 'distractions' weren't good enough."

"...Lunis." Riku looked them right through the lens of their mask.

"Yes?" Lunis murmured in response.

"How long did Justek originally tell you to give us?"

Even from this far away Riku could tell Lunis quivered in response. And Kairi bothered to speak up at him too, though she wasn't very pleasant about it.

"What are you saying?" She said glancing from the corner of her eyes.

"All he's saying is speculation," Lunis interjected in a collected tone of voice, "The elongated time limit was an act of courtesy. Because even though you've made it on time...I will still defeat you."

Riku squinted at Lunis and could feel the deity's eyes glaring back through the mask. Riku sighed and relaxed his arms besides his hips whilst remarking, "Fine. Say what you want. But..."

He drew his sword out from his palm and said firmly, "Your father is not going to get his way, no matter how many of his children he feels fit to throw our way."

"...There is no need to worry about that. I'm the only one he needs to rely on," Lunis took a couple steps back and the towering gates of their palace began to creak open, "But before we can fight, I promised you both one more foe that'd stand in your path. And according to father, this one was tailor-made for you, Riku."

"...!" Riku grimaced as two towering rifts opened beside the door. Lunis slipped through the door and it slammed shut on the sight of them glaring at Riku one last time.

Two lumbering titans slowly pulled themselves through the rifts, their figures bound briefly to them by foggy chains. The being on the left was a mishapen creature made of pure black mass, save for its hollow yellow eyes wrapped in the center of a mess of twisted tendrils. The monster's gut was hollowed out in the shape of a vertical heart, which made it impossible to believe that its comparatively small legs could help the thing stand.

The monster on the right was pure white, save for the four paper thin blue tendrils that combined into a scarf around its neck. This one has broad, triangular shoulders and hands with only a thumb representing its digits. It has a thin waist and thick, short legs. Overall the creature's skin looked like a bodysuit, something not helped by the distinctive zipper from its neck to its waist. The monster's head was round and lacking in eyes or a mouth. Instead, there was a symbol sort-of like a cross present, though with three of the points represented by thorns while the bottom part looked like an upside-down heart without its point.

Riku's heart dropped with a heavy "thump" and his vision blurred slightly. His head, wracked with a throbbing pulse of pain, was gripped tightly by his left hand. He stared at the two monsters with a glazed over expression that made him look like he had just woken up.

Kairi looked over at him and bluntly remarked, "What's wrong with you?"

"Those monsters...They...They aren't supposed to be here..." He remarked independently of Kairi's words.

"Of course they aren't." She said as a matter-of-fact while gripping her staff and pointing it at the two intruders.

"N-No...This is..._different_..." Riku took in a deep breath to steady himself, but the pain continued to plague him.

The two monstrosities turned their heads to one another. The dark creature was slow, while the white abnormality was quick on the draw. A certain crimson glow then came between them, slowly, but surely, in the form of a vial of the Anti-Genesis Theorem.

As Riku's heart let out another heavy sound he raised his right hand and aimed his blade at the vial to say, "Not this time..."

He fired his blade forward as an arrow, but failed to make it on time as the two creatures raised one limb up and smashed the vial between the others' palm. The darkness' malleable mass bound to the nothingness like strands of webbing, with bare traces of the Anti-Genesis Theorem breaking through the cracks in their skins.

The dark titan started to dissolve, its mass traveling along the white monster's arm and carrying the Anti-Genesis Theorem with it. The white monster's zipper came down, opening the way to a void of nothingness that the darkness was more than happy to crawl into.

The moment the white monster closed its body to the power of darkness it had consumed, its whole form was consumed within a mixture of red and white light. Kairi edged back, a single dew of sweat appearing on the side of her face.

"Ummm...W-What's going on?"

"I...don't know." Riku responded. Time and space unraveled around the creature as darkness and light fought for dominance around it. The flickering flashes of the balance between them coalesced into a swirling vortex through which only one creature would emerge forth from it.

It was dripping. Bits and pieces of a pale, mud-like substance fell to the surface as the creature took its first step out into the world. It bore the shape of the creature of twilight only with its sharper points smoothed out and the needless protrusions gone forever. It had no mouth, no eyes, nothing but the bubbling, unsettling substance that composed its skin.

It stood up and raised its "head" to the sky. When its "skin" solidified, a "mouth" opened just a little above its neck. And on its abdomen. And its elbows. And below the knees. Around the whole entire body, its "skin" ruptured full of "mouths".

There was a time before time was an immaculate concept to humanity. With no lives being lived. No destinies being forged. No progress being made. Creatures existed within the darkest corners of space, spurred of a chance to make something out of themselves. They were made out of what humanity refers to as "flesh". In fact, they were the fore-bearers of flesh.

These creatures were granted a chance to make something of themselves. To forge the first species by stripping away at their very beings, and offering them to God as tribute. But when these architects of humanity stripped themselves down to the bare minimum, they exposed themselves to the abyss of madness. And from these long-lost titans were the first Heartless and Nobody born: The Darkside, and the Twilight Thorn.

The names of these titans were lost to history, as were their contributions to the world. But now that one exists again, it finds the weight of life to be painful. Contradictory. And terrifying. So with no greater way to express its anguish, the titan of flesh filled the lunar surface with a screech.

"AHHHH!" Kairi dropped her staff and plugged her ears. Riku, however, stood his ground and was paralyzed from the waist down by the monster's howl.

"_Justek...What have you done?" _He said, finding himself unnerved to the point of feeling genuine fear.

When the titan ended its cry of pain it had nothing left to do except close its mouths and point its featureless face towards the two standing before it. It could not escape its pain. And so it would inflict greater pain unto those in its way. And with the Anti-Genesis Theorem giving it strength, this titan of flesh may potentially see its wish come true.

**The Ancestral Mold: The Formless**

Somehow the more disturbing form the creature took made it easier for Riku to stand and get his bearings together. He looked the dead, pale-skinned creature in its face and then turned his head to Kairi as she trembled and pulled her hands away from her ears.

"We can't let appearances deceive is. This abomination isn't any tougher than the other creatures we've faced so far. Lets defeat it..." Riku swung his sword down hard at his side and focused on the power of light to transform, wielding the sheen of his katana against the fleshborn titan, "And take the fight to Lunis!"

As though the brave words offered comfort, Kairi bent down to pick up her staff and then slapped down on the Angel Drive. She then proclaimed "I-I wasn't scared you asshole!" and drew her staff towards her foe.

The Formless made its first move by lashing its meaty arms at the ground and splashing a wave of its flesh towards it enemies. Riku and Kairi jumped back together and watched as the flesh puddled onto the ground and boiled over.

From the bubbles popped a series of needles that flew directly towards their faces. Riku cut them down with the swathe of his blade while a twirl of Kairi's staff sufficed in fending them off. The Formless' limbs snapped back to its shoulders and it swung one arm before its chest.

Thin layers of its flesh stripped off in the form of three double-sided spinning blades. They hovered in place for a moment before flying after Riku, dripping the whole way.

Riku pressed his feet hard against the ground and raised his katana using both hands to hold it steady. Accounting for the lower gravity he was able to hold back the flesh-ridden blades with his iron stance. The blades ground down and splattered over his body. Though he was only mildly disgusted when it touched his skin.

The Formless pulled the blades back to its arm and had to turn its head to Kairi as she came in swinging. Its malleable form bent the side of its head inward to dodge her swing then pulled its entire hulking mass off the ground, transmogrifying its shape into a twisted, spiral-like form with her in the center.

It looped around in the same form and shoved parts of its body inward when Kairi went to swing at it. She coated her staff and swung hard behind her, only for the streak of silver to glide between the splitting flesh. The Formless snapped right back together and thrust parts of its spiral form into Kairi's body like fists.

When it hit her from the front it immediately followed up from behind to keep her at its mercy. Each punch snapped out a shockwave with the sound of teeth crunching bones.

Riku narrowed his gaze at the beast and Kairi in danger and moved his katana towards his sheath. But the bits of flesh stuck to his robe began to stir, and together they jumped around his neck in the form of a ring and started crunching down.

"G...Kkk!" Riku gasped for air and dug his fingers into the inner part of the ring, but it molded around his fingers to keep choking him.

Suddenly Riku widened his eyes and his body let loose a burst of white hot light. The ring of flesh let out a tiny screech and forced itself off, returning to its true host like a scurrying worm.

Riku caught his breath slowly and drew his katana back into the sheath. He centered his attention on Kairi and saw her starting to get a feel for where the Formless was attacking from. She used her staff for defense and her eyes darted around for some sort of weak point.

It was a long-shot, but Riku placed all his trust into his teammate when he proclaimed, "Kairi! Barrier! Now!"

She hastily widened her eyes and stuttered "H-Huh?!" but nevertheless popped a barrier of aura around her body. Riku then sliced his blade out and sent a wave of energy to push Kairi out of the spiral of flesh.

The Formless would not relent. It collapsed behind Kairi in a manner resembling a parachute and bent its flesh back to slow her momentum to a stop. It then stiffened in place and its flesh crawled upon her body in the form of multiple baby-sized hands.

She squeezed her fists and used all her strength to pull herself forward. More hands scrambled to drag her back in, flooding her legs within seconds.

"Get...OFF!" A tight grunt squeezed through her gritted teeth as with one rough lurch forward she wrenched her legs free and went tumbling away from the flesh titan. A slow, floaty descent to be sure, but she was at least safe.

Riku floated over to where she landed and tried to help her up, but she slapped his hand and proclaimed, "Don't ruin my concentration asshole!"

When she got back up and faced the Formless the titan returned to its original state of being and bent its legs off the ground. It twisted its arms back in the same direction, suspended in place without gravity to restrain it.

"_Its up to something..." _Riku calmly put his hand on the hilt of his blade and waited for a part of the creature to move.

Its legs spun around and Riku leaped back out of its range. Kairi jumped over it and then flew straight at the titan's chest. Then and only then did its upper body whip around and smack Kairi with its arms. But she stubbornly slammed her staff against its limbs and fought back.

"Not this time you disgusting freak!" Kairi turned and dug her feet into the air, using aura to substitute as footholds. She forced her staff horizontally into the Formless' flesh and watched it get devoured.

"Heh! Gotcha now!" She waited for the beast to steady its arm directly in line with its head and then swung her hands towards it.

Her staff shoved itself up its arm and then protruded out of the back its head. The titan fell onto its back at a sluggish pace and Kairi recalled her staff back into her hand. Though she had to shake it off right away.

"I don't think that's enough." Riku remarked as he cautiously pulled his katana an inch out of the sheath.

Sure enough, it wasn't. The Formless melted down into a puddle and shot up long spikes in bunches at a time. The titan's "mouths" emerged on those spikes and screeched.

Kairi squirmed and tried to say through the loud noise, "Y-Yeah but I clearly hurt it!"

The Formless sprinted at Riku in its puddle form and tried to bury it within its forest of spikes. Riku dashed back as a streak of light and threw a string of light slices into the creature's mass. Its malleable form allowed it to expertly evade every attack by opening holes in its body for the light to pass through.

"I don't think it can be hurt by normal means." Riku narrowed his eyes and stood his ground a few feet away from the Formless.

He closed his eyes and tried to reclaim his calm place of mind. The glint of his blade brightened and he slashed horizontally at the ground then cut down in a single motion. A "T" shaped swathe of light swept towards the puddle of flesh, only for it to split in half and leap around the center of the attack.

The left side dove down at Riku. He calculated its potential moves and moved straight back. When the other side dove straight at him though it and its other half was suddenly surrounded by a circular cage of light spears. Before it could break free Kairi sealed off the gaps between them. One bit of flesh was sliced off and separated from the rest, where it writhed on the ground unable to take on any shape.

Riku paused and looked up as Kairi bound her staff in light and thrust it down at the flesh beast. Even in such confined space the Formless took its mass and smashed against the walls to dodge her attacks, slowly pushing its way up out through the top and climbing higher and higher to where she was.

She floated upward to evade its reach, but all the beast needed was a small strand of flesh to stick out from the rest of its body and attach itself to her ankles. From there, it had her. The moment it did, it dragged the rest of its hulking mass straight up to her body and started diving down, smashing her against the moon's surface and covering her mouth with the edge of its hammer-shaped fist.

The rest of its body reformed into its original shape and started crushing down with immeasurable force. If she couldn't breathe then she couldn't fight back, making her easy prey.

Riku wanted to rush to her aid but knew she could last a few seconds without his help. He had been staring at the flesh that had been cut off from the rest of the mold for a bit now. And because he did, an idea began to form in his head.

He sheathed his blade and thrust his hands out to capture the bit of flesh into an orb of light. It bulged rapidly across multiple parts of the orb to try and break free. But with just one squeeze of his fists, Riku crunched the orb down to the size of a speck and destroyed the flesh down to the atom.

The Formless twisted its head around like a nut being screwed in, squeezing out every last scream it could from its core. It then pulled its arm off Kairi and snapped towards Riku in an instant. It stretched its flesh out like a blanket and opened its "mouths" to bite down upon Riku.

Riku calmly swung his hand towards his katana and lunged forward like a dart through the center of the beast's flesh. The next second the Formless collapsed into the size of a pea-sized sphere, a gruesome fate that would've befallen Riku for sure.

Riku turned and landed next to Kairi, who had gotten up and shaken the drippings of flesh off her body. With a narrowed glare towards the rising Formless she grumbled at Riku, "You're really good at pissing others off...!"

"We're wasting our time trying to attack it by conventional means." Riku pointed out.

"Then why don't you go into that other form and wipe it out instantly?!" Kairi exclaimed in an exasperated tone.

"There's no need to waste energy like that when there's a simpler alternative," Riku tilted his head slightly to the right and remarked, "But I'm going to need your help to defeat this thing, Kairi."

"Ghhhh...!" Kairi was clearly fighting with herself to accept his help. But time was of the essence and she knew that above all else, she couldn't waste time arguing, "Ugh fine! But it better not involve getting close to that thing!"

"Sorry, but it will." Riku said, completely stone-faced.

"Then forget it!" Kairi proclaimed in response.

"Will you listen to me first?" Riku bluntly remarked, then continued regardless of how she felt, "This creature has a limited amount of mass at its disposal. That's why you were able to keep it trapped for a while. If we take that same principle and apply it to a cage with no escape..."

Kairi's head perked up and she finished Riku's thoughts by remarking, "Then we can crush it down to dust!"

"Exactly." Riku subtly nodded his head with a smile.

She then stood right up and waggled her staff before her chest with a cocky smirk, "Fine, I can trap the freak in a cage. But you better cover my ass or I'm smacking you on the head five times!"

"_Did...did my brother have to deal with this kind of abrasiveness?" _Riku had pitying thoughts towards his brother with his smile wobbling slightly.

"...You're thinking something terrible, aren't you?" Kairi said with her glare focused on his face.

The screech of the Formless resumed their focus on their foe. Kairi twirled her staff by her side then clutched it next to her hip and flew straight for the beast.

Riku stuck back and drew his katana from the sheath. He watched Kairi stick to making wide, curved flights around the Formless, using her staff only to repel the lashing of its limbs. Her body left behind trails of aura in the air, showing the beginnings of a sphere.

She moved as fast as she could because if the Formless caught on even slightly, it would probably become impossible to try this again. After twenty seconds of graceful evasion Kairi suddenly snapped away from the flesh beast and snapped her fingers. The weaved bindings of light spread out, creating a full sphere of light surrounding the entirety of the Formless.

Kairi then held her hands down and said, "Ok! Time to end-"

The atmosphere shook and pushed Kairi back slightly. The Formless was restless and shoved all its mass against the confines of the sphere. Kairi pulled her hands back towards her shoulder then thrust them back out.

"This thing's struggling really hard! I don't think I'll be able to crush it quick enough!"

Riku closed his eyes and calmly assessed the situation. He recalled something his brother had said a few hours back about Elemental Overlords being able to absorb the energy from the elements into their bodies.

He slowly creaked his eyes opened to look down at his blade, and an idea arose not a second too late. He made no unnecessary moves. With one thrust, his blade penetrated the sphere of light and bound itself in tight so not even an atom of flesh could break free.

"W-What are you doing now?!" Kairi proclaimed.

"Ending this nightmare..." Riku closed his eyes and concentrated on his blade. The light from the sphere was sucked into the blade via a powerful vacuum, in essence, making the sphere collapse upon the Formless.

The flesh beast struggled, but in vain. It came from the darkness, only to be banished from existence by the light. By the time Riku had fully absorbed the sphere into his blade, there wasn't even a speck of the Formless remaining. And thus it would remain a distant memory, like a far-off dream.

Riku exhaled a deep breath and slowly rose to full height. He dispelled Light Form and turned to Kairi as she deactivated her Angel Drive. With a sincere look of gratitude on his face he remarked, "Thank you for your help. This wouldn't have been possi-"

"Don't," Kairi thrust her staff up in his face and glared at him with her teeth grit tight, "I went along with your plan because I want to save the world. Not because I forgive you."

She backed away slowly and leaned her head over her shoulder as the doors to the palace began to creak open. She turned around and muttered, "You're done running you lunar bastard. I'm coming for you..."

She was on a one-way path to the palace with a one-track mind on her foe. Riku lingered behind for a moment, his eyelids sagging as his heart remained heavy. He slowly shook his head, and followed Kairi along into the palace. When they were inside, the doors slammed shut behind them...

_Next Time: The Face of the Lunar Child_


	16. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15: The Lunar Reflection**

Once Riku and Kairi were inside the Lunar Palace they sensed an immediate change in the atmosphere. There was breathable air, and none of it had slipped through the door before it was slammed shut.

Riku shifted his head back at the door and murmured to himself, "I figured that would happen..."

He looked ahead and saw Kairi continuing on at a sluggish pace, her head pointed at the ground. Riku's eyes narrowed and he kept up with her at this distance for now.

He had caught a glimpse of the palace's inner halls before entering, but now being inside showed just how bright it truly was. All the walls, pillars and floors were made of the same material, a mixture of pearl and marble. But the building was crafted in such a way that it was easy to tell where to go.

There were hallways on the left and right, but nothing was telling Riku that it was necessary to go down them besides some mild sense of curiosity. The biggest attraction was the large, arched doorway on the northern end of the palace. It was adorned with statues of cherubs atop its left and right sides, and long stretches of stone ivy crawled down to the bottom.

The fancy décor deified the person that was hiding behind the shut doors. The many branches did a decent job concealing what was in reality a one-way road. Defeating Lunis was the only way to keep moving forward. There was no looking nor no going back.

"_Lunis is going to be a tough opponent, given what Solaris could do. But will they be just as strong, or stronger, than him?" _Riku looked at the back of Kairi's head and his gaze narrowed once more.

"_Even though we outnumber Lunis, it doesn't feel like it. We managed to work together to defeat that fused abomination but that was only because we had enough time to work out a plan. In the heat of battle, can I trust Kairi to cooperate?" _For him, the answer was a swift and resounding "No".

He stopped still in his tracks and lowered his hands to his sides. Kairi continued moving forward, until suddenly Riku said, "Kairi there's...something I need to say to you."

Her feet became as stiff as concrete and she raised her head ever so slightly. Riku could hear her taking a deep breath. She turned to her side and glanced at him. Her stare bordered on a hot glare but primarily looked tired.

This attitude was reflected in her tone of voice as she muttered "What?" without bothering to look Riku in the eyes.

Riku paused for a few seconds. Not to think of what to say, but because he was hesitant to say it. He didn't think two spoken words would be enough to change anything, but he didn't want to return to his brother without putting in some effort into mending the broken bridge between him and Kairi.

"...I'm sorry." He whispered, a tinge of genuine melancholy in his voice.

"Sorry?" Kairi raised her brows a bit then arched them down with a brief, bitter scoff, "You think I'm going to forgive you just because you said 'Sorry'?"

Riku closed his eyes and admitted, "No, I don't."

When he opened them back up Kairi hadn't budged. He had honestly expected her to turn away and brush him off. But considering the way she looked at him, it was as though she was expecting him to say more.

And without even thinking, the words continued to spill out of Riku's mouth, "A part of me is still saying that what I did to Auris was right...But in my heart, it still leaves me feeling ashamed of what I have done."

Riku raised his hands out and Kairi continued to allow him to speak, "I try to keep my anger in check. But its like...the more I hold it back, the worse my rage becomes when it does slip through."

He tightened his right fist and looked Kairi straight in the eyes to tell her, "Your mother knew exactly how to push my buttons and I just stood there and let her. She made me feel the most vulnerable that I've felt in a long time. And because I chose violence, I didn't just disappoint myself...I disappointed my brother, and hurt you too."

"I can't expect you to forgive me Kairi. But I **am **sorry." Riku let out a sigh and felt like a burden had been lifted off his shoulders, even if it was only a bit.

When he opened his eyes again he saw Kairi turning and walking towards him. Her gaze was still narrow but was now white-hot. Her eyes widened with a bloodshot look as she suddenly curled her hands into fists and let out a huff of hot air through her nostrils.

In the blink of an eye Riku felt her pale white knuckles pressed against the front of his face and his being body sent on a one way collision course with the ground. His body twirled around once and his back was dragged along ten feet of solid ground once he landed.

The surprise factor hurt a lot more than the actual punch. Riku rubbed the back of his head as he propped it upright and saw Kairi still posed at the end of her swing. Her knuckles clearly throbbed with pain and she rubbed them as she lifted her body up.

With only a minor scowl to show for it she said to him, "Apology accepted."

Riku fluttered his eyelashes and stood back up in a matter of seconds. By the time he was back up Kairi had turned around and started walking back towards the door.

"That's...all you have to say?" Riku remarked in a mildly flabbergasted tone.

Kairi stopped again and twisted her head back to murmur, "We don't have time for this."

"Yes we do. Trust me. We're not in any rush."

"...That's such a Mew thing to say..." Kairi replied while pinching the space between her eyes. The comparison took Riku a bit by surprise.

"What else do you want me to say?" Kairi spun around and slammed a hand flat against her chest, "Am I expected to pick sides between my best friend's brother and my **mother**?! Even though she hid her clairvoyance from me all this time...Even if she flat-out lied about not knowing who my father was...E-Even believing that she only knew how to love me because she saw how to in the future..."

Kairi's eyes watered and she bit her lower lip briefly before lashing her body out towards Riku and yelling, "You never had a mother! Y-You don't know how hard this is for me!"

Riku calmly stood there and responded with the honest truth, "You're right. I don't. I've never had a mother, or a father...Just a brother, who I only knew for a day."

Kairi's heated cry of anguish led to a slow, declining pant as Riku continued to speak out, "I'm in no position to speak about familial matters. But I do know this."

Riku crossed his arms against his chest and looked Kairi's weary eyes straight-on, "My brother trusts you, and you trust him. Even though you feel betrayed by your mother, you'll always be able to turn to my brother for a shoulder to lean on."

"But right now, all we can do is keep each other safe. I'm...terrible at this 'talking it out' sort-of thing." Riku tilted his head slightly down and heard Kairi let out a dull chuckle, which forced his head back up.

She subtly shook her head and closed her eyes partway to say, "When I first saw you I thought you'd be exactly like Mew because of how similar you looked. But you've obviously led your own life and had totally different experiences than he did."

She raised her head and had a mild smile on as she remarked, "Yet deep down neither of you can help yourself when you see someone down in the dumps. Guess you guys are just the good apples that fell off of Alex Whiter's rotten branches."

The two stared at each other in silence until Kairi turned her head to the left and let out a swift, sudden sigh, "...I guess...I can't just be angry at my mom forever. She's done something I can't forgive her for but..."

She placed a hand on her beating chest and murmured, "Its hard to stop loving your mother..."

Riku kept quiet and let Kairi resolve her thoughts on her own. That seemed to be the end of it when she looked at him and remarked, "Ok...we've kept that bastard Lunar Deity waiting long enough."

Riku solemnly nodded his head in agreement and remarked, "Yeah. And we don't want to lose track of my brother's trail either."

So they had an unspoken agreement to work together for the time being. Any other issues they had to hash out would be dealt with after their enemies were beaten. Riku still kept his distance behind Kairi as they made their way to the fancy door.

They didn't know what to expect going beyond it. But their host seemed comfortable allowing them entry, as the door creaked open without their efforts. Inside the two found an expansive room that appeared to make up half of the palace's entire area.

There were colorless stained glass windows on the walls, each one separated by an ionic pillar. The roof was domed and a chandelier of dazzling diamonds hung from the center of it. A long stretch of red carpet went from the door to a lonesome throne chair a few feet away from the back of the room. And the one they sought, Lunis, stood before it with their cloak draped to the ground.

From across the daunting room of royalty the Lunar Deity raised their masked face carried their voice to the ears of their guests, "You took your time getting here. Were you exploring the rest of the palace?"

"No, we just needed to have a little chat." And that's all Riku would say on the matter. He continued to walk while Kairi ran ahead, stopping at the last fourth of the way to their foe.

She drew and swung her staff at Lunis and proclaimed, "Who'd wanna explore your bland palace anyway? I've seen white bread with more color than this place!"

Lunis lowered their head and whispered back, "I've only gone through the entrance and this room so far."

"What? Not pleased with this tribute to your godliness?" Kairi bitterly tore in to her enemy, punctuating it all off with a scoff.

"...Its not like that," Lunis shook their head, "My father called this place...'my home'. It is something of an inheritance from a past life."

"Past life?" Riku murmured to himself by the time he got next to Kairi.

"But there's nothing about this place that immediately jumps out as 'homely'. My heart beat flutters with a vague sense of familiarity towards this place, but...This empty building could never replace the home I've lost."

Riku heard a muffled sigh come through the mask as the Lunar Deity readjusted their stance and peered straight at him, "Home is still where it was, but at the same time its not...My brother and I lost so much time. Time...that'll never be reclaimed."

"Well sorry, but you don't have my sympathy." Kairi bluntly remarked.

Lunis tilted their head back slightly and remarked, "You're right. I know we'll never see eye-to-eye."

"That ugly mask of yours sure ain't helping." Kairi continued to be merciless in her verbal assault. And Lunis appeared a little somber because of it.

It took a few seconds for the Lunar Deity to respond, but it was not directed at her assailant of words, "Riku...Have you found your reason for fighting now?"

Riku crossed his arms against his chest and kept his mind quiet for now. Nothing would distract him from delivering a piercing observation to his foe, "Maybe I have, maybe I haven't. But...I don't think you've found _yours_."

For the first time since they met, Lunis barked back with a scathing remark of, "You assume too much."

"Then tell me why you fight, and I'll assume no more." Riku gave up a modicum of respect towards his foe, and that seemed to resonate with them.

"...I fight for the sake of father's wishes. And if what of wishes me is to be the blade that cuts down the obstacles in his path, then I am fine with that."

"_I knew it..." _Riku took in a deep breath and exhaled as he spoke, "That's what your father wants. What do **you** want?"

Lunis froze up. The ghost-like presence they maintained was replaced by them becoming as still as a statue and their cloak limply falling against the frame of their body. They raised their head high and responded to Riku with an unkindly retort of, "I will not play these psychological games with you, Phoenix of Balance. Are you too scared to fight a god?"

"Not even..." Riku lowered his hand and summoned his blade in the right one, immediately concentrating on it to go into Light Form. He narrowed his gaze at Lunis and told them in a soft but firm tone of voice, "We're going to win not because we're stronger than you, but because we have something worth fighting for. You cannot cut us with a dull blade, Lunis."

"Shhnnk!" The sound of metal drawn came from Lunis' sides as part of the cloak peeled back to reveal a small silver knife shaped like a crescent in each hand. The blades held Riku and Kairi's reflections within them.

"You will be shown otherwise..."

Lunis' head pivoted slightly to the left. The air grew cold and thicker, with Riku's perception of time slowing. He saw Kairi motioning her hand for her Angel Drive, and in that very brief span it would have taken her to do so Lunis darted in.

Riku widened his eyes and drew his katana, bolting between the two and connecting his blade with Lunis' crossed knives. The intent was clear that she was going for Kairi's wrist in an attempt to remove the Drives from the equation.

Yet what happened next caught Riku off-guard. Like a parting veil of fog, Lunis' body disappeared from view. But Riku had felt the weight of their knives, the kindling of steel against steel. Time continued to move at a snail's pace long enough for Riku to feel Lunis' presence two-fold in the space of a nanosecond, the second one coming from behind Kairi.

Halfway through turning around Riku saw Lunis with their left knife drawn beside their neck and their gaze poised towards Kairi's back. A bead of sweat slowly appeared on the side of Kairi's cheek, but she was too slow to do anything in response.

Even with his reflexes bordering on the speed of light Riku found himself scrambling to intervene. He moved a full foot back and flung his katana past Kairi's face like a javelin, cutting through the sweat drop. In the blink of an eye Lunis readjusted their stance straight up and crossed their knives into a full circle to lock Riku's katana from getting near their mask.

After being pushed ten feet back Lunis swung their knives at the ground with such vigorous force that Riku's katana bounced off the ground and went flying over their body.

"Kairi." Riku remarked in the second he got to speak.

"Y-Yeah!" She slammed down on that Angel Drive of hers and the flash of light from her transformation repelled Lunis' forward assault.

The Lunar Deity ducked as Riku's blade traveled by overhead and returned to his hand. Riku and Kairi brandished their weapons at Lunis, while their foe's cloak was set afloat by an unearthly breeze.

"_Those who see me...Are those who have surrendered their hearts to darkness," _Lunis' blades vanished and reappeared in the same second, cleansed of the chipping Riku had inflicted on them. The Lunar Deity's hollow eyes shone as they lurched their head upright and remarked, _"And the heretics of light...Will find their blind eyes consumed in the White Shroud."_

"Here they come." Riku cautiously raised his katana and Kairi nodded her head.

Lunis darted toward the space between the two in a second, their cloaked form twisted up. Kairi turned her head left as Lunis swung their right foot at her face but couldn't get her staff up in time. In the same motion Lunis bent forward and cut through Riku's right grieve to draw blood from the leg.

The wound wasn't that deep, but it stung his nerves hard. He tried to swing his sword down but Lunis bent below it to give themselves enough time to drop their leg straight down into Riku's ankles.

Riku was tripped up but his wings made for perfect stabilizers. Lunis flicked a knife free from their wrist and it moved faster than a speeding bullet for his jaw. Riku held his katana horizontally and the force of the knife carried him back a few feet, with the knife rebounding into the air.

Lunis hopped into the air without a sound then used Riku's body like a stepping stone to reach their knife. His foe's feet were soft as a cloud, but slammed him to the ground like a boulder. Lunis gripped both their knives and dove straight back down as a whirlwind, delivering a few slices across Riku's stomach as they forced them to the floor permanently.

The last slice was aimed at Riku's neck, but he managed to snag his foe by the wrist with the blade a centimeter from skin contact. Lunis' knees were pressed down on the wound in his gut with the cloak absorbing the blood. But despite the pain blaring in his brain Riku was more than capable of keeping Lunis at bay.

It was curious though, how his foe's wrist felt lithe and their skin smooth.

Kairi butted in and took a swing at Lunis' head. To Riku's surprise the staff connected and knocked the Lunar Deity to the ground. But they rolled with the blow and were upright within seconds.

They flicked one knife out of their wrist towards Kairi and then another into the air. Kairi swerved sideways and cracked a smile. Lunis leaped towards the other one and redirected its flight straight down towards Kairi's head.

Riku mustered enough strength to fling his katana at the knife and catch it between the hilt and the blade. Lunis' attention was firmly on the first knife though, which they dove and caught a couple feet behind Kairi.

They twisted their body around and ran at Kairi's back. Kairi turned around and swung her staff at Lunis' head. The Lunar Deity gently tossed their blade up, ducked under the swing, then flipped back and knocked Kairi off her feet with a pair of kicks.

They then caught the knife between their toes and rotated their body around with their legs extended, cutting away at Kairi's legs and reaching her waist as she descends. By that time Kairi has her staff on the defensive and holds on tight.

Riku recalled his katana to take a hard swing at Lunis. The Lunar Deity expertly flipped away a few times, returning their knife to the hand and drifting through the air like a blanket in a spring breeze.

With just a few more steps back Lunis picked their other knife up off the ground with their toes and flicked it into their hand. The weapons were concealed under their shroud as they inched forward.

"_They've got the reflexes of a ninja..." _Riku squinted both his eyes as he tried to anticipate his foe's next move, _"And they're fast. Even faster than this form."_

Another contrast to separate the two deities. Solaris was raw power incarnate, while Lunis greatly emphasized their speed to overwhelm opponents. And though the Lunar Deity's hadn't cut that deep thus far, their attacks were dangerously precise.

Before Riku had a chance to analyze this further Lunis threw both their knives at a straight diagonal path from their sides and darted straight at them both barehanded. Riku tightened his grip on his blade and tried to gauge the way they'd move.

"_Up, or down?" _They had already gotten both his and Kairi's legs worn down slightly, so that felt like the clearest course of action.

Riku turned his blade to the ground to signal his foe that his defenses were strong. But he was not Lunis' target. Right as the Lunar Deity was in front of him, they suddenly bolted straight to the left and went for the side of Kairi's legs.

Kairi caught Lunis coming from the corner of her eyes and reacted by stabbing her staff into the ground and using it as a prop to leap and twirl out of the range of Lunis' charge. On the return trip Kairi drove both her feet into the back of Lunis' mask.

The Lunar Deity's body disappeared like fog as the heels touched down, leaving Kairi baffled as she landed and stumbled a couple steps forward.

"Huh?" Her spoken voice mirroring Riku's thoughts.

The knives that had been unattended to returned with a vengeance in a most surprising manner. They converged on Kairi's location and cut part of her back and abdomen along the way, before being collected in Lunis' grasp the second later.

Riku felt Lunis' presence three times in the span of a second, two of them belonging in the path the knives had been traveling along moments ago. The present Lunis, in the meanwhile, pinched their knives by the blades then quickly flipped them to reaffirm the grip on their handles.

One forward plunge would be all it'd take to mortally wound Kairi. Fortunately the Aurian was too stubborn to just die right then and there. As Lunis dove in on the attack Kairi made a hard turn right and drove her fist down into the top of the Lunar Deity's skull.

The silent warrior let out a sudden gasp of shock as their body was knocked to the ground face first. _Finally _having her foe at her mercy, Kairi leaped back and set her staff alight. Similarly to how she attacked the abomination outside the palace, Kairi thrust her staff forth multiple times to send a barrage of light spears down at Lunis.

The only thing that could save the Lunar Deity from Kairi's wrath was themselves. And so, out-of-the-blue, another Lunis suddenly appeared and picked themselves up off the ground by their legs and tossed them away, taking the blow in their place.

That Lunis was eviscerated like swiss cheese but quickly vanished like fog. The **real** Lunis, meanwhile landed gracefully on the ground after a series of spins.

"...Not bad." They said.

Riku arched his brows up subtly and remarked, "Shadow clones?"

"Oh my god don't you start too. I hear enough anime references from Mew as is!" Kairi bluntly remarked.

Lunis wiggled their knives out from under their cloak and whispered back, "If you're so smart Riku, why don't you figure it out?"

They darted right for him and glided their right knife down at his chest. Riku slashed to the left, hitting within the hook of the knife to keep it from advancing further. Without taking a pause to breathe Lunis hopped off the ground and used their momentum to repeatedly spin and slice towards Riku.

Riku backed away a good ten feet and plugged his katana into the sheath, drawing it out with a radiant wave of energy flying towards Lunis. Lunis landed and swung their body to the left, curving their run clockwise around Riku's back.

Riku poked his gaze to the right and for a brief moment felt his reaction time was in sync with Lunis' incredible speed. A slender leg slipped out from underneath their cloak and tried to trip Riku up, only for him to brace his legs too stiffly for them to make them budge.

So they went for the alternative approach and whipped their whole body around so their knife would cut through Riku's grieve and leave the Lunar Deity staring straight at his backside upon passing.

Riku turned around and Lunis hopped at him once more, twirling their whole body around like a deadly slicing top. Riku grabbed tightly onto his blade and narrowed his gaze through the tornado of white. He swung his blade in swift, precise strokes to repel Lunis' many attacks.

Before they reached the ground however one of their copies dove below and used their hands to toss Lunis over Riku's head. The copy then swung their left leg up at his neck, forcing him to divert his blade's direction into stopping it.

The clone was made of solid mass and struck with as much speed and strength as the real deal. But for as tough as this made the clone to handle, Riku saw from experience that enough force would make the clone vanish.

So he calmly held his breath and pushed his katana down harder to "cut" the clone's foot off, and the rest of the body vanished into nothingness. But he let himself get distracted long enough for Lunis to drive one of their knives into the center of his back, on the space between his wings to be precise.

The blade cut deep, hitting the very middle of his spine and sending a metric ton of pain shooting up into his brain. But the Lunar Deity would never be able to cripple him so long as Kairi was there to provide back-up.

A spear of light was lunged through the air at Lunis' face. The Lunar Deity pulled their head back then ducked under another spear while making a hasty retreat. Blood dripped onto Lunis' cloak from the wound on Riku's back.

The young Overlord paused to catch his breath and hope his steady breathing would dull the pain. He stood idly by as Kairi flew after their speedy foe and tried to hit them with light spears, only for each one to miss.

Lunis suddenly hunched over behind one of the spears and darted on top of it, using it to vault over Kairi and flick their knives towards their back. Kairi spun around and twirled her staff to deflect the knives left and right respectively...And into the hands of two other Lunis copies.

The copies immediately darted straight for Kairi. Kairi's answer to their assault was to raise herself upside-down via a mid-air handstand on her staff and have the copies run chest first into the ends of her weapon. Then she pulled her staff up and on her way down swung her feet out into their faces, like something straight of a kung-fu movie.

The clones disappeared and their knives dropped to the ground. Yet contrary to what Riku expected, this didn't leave Lunis disarmed. They drew two more knives straight down and went right for Riku upon landing.

Riku had to hold his ground with his back in the shape it was in. Lunis glided her knives along the air towards his face and stomach. It was a graceful dance of deadly cuts, and the Lunar Deity was almost perfect at not tripping up a single step of the way.

But there was a flaw in Lunis' movements now that Riku had subtly been paying attention to along the way. The Lunar Deity had been deliberately moving in such a way that their cloak would keep them fully concealed. But now the added weight from the blood they'd drawn was exposing bits of their arms and legs as they took their shots at Riku.

Riku took a few hits out of necessity to perceive bits of Lunis' true form. And what he saw under that cloak aided the suspicions he'd been having from the moment he touched their wrist early into the battle.

"_I think its time we had a real face-to-face..." _Riku closed his eyes and wrapped himself in silence. The clang of his blade deflecting Lunis' knives didn't make him budge even slightly.

The darkness emerged from his body and wreathed his holy garb in an instant. This power, which he dubbed Chaos Form, made Lunis take pause and retreat twenty feet back in the blink of an eye.

And yet, even faster than that, Riku was right in front of them with his fist drawn back and his eyes wide open. Lunis was paralyzed as the fist was driven into their mask. A loud crack echoed throughout the room as a pocket of air decompressed and rippled for fifty feet out.

Lunis was dragged back another twenty feet and forced onto their knees. A pinky tip sized piece of the mask chipped off onto the ground, followed by one the size of an eye. Then larger chunks broke off, leading to the whole thing disassembling within seconds.

"I think its time you stopped fooling around..." Riku crossed his arms firmly before his chest and glared Lunis straight in the eyes as he stated, "Goddess of the Moon."

As the last piece of the mask quietly hit the ground, Lunis raised their head and their true face was exposed for the two of them to see.

The Lunar Deity had a cute, womanly face. Physically, Riku wagered she was in her early-twenties. Her skin was a little pale and silky smooth, with not a single blemish on it. Her brown eyes were a tiny bit bigger and rounder than normal. Her hair was pure silver and tied in a long ponytail on the left side of the back of her head, with some strands of hair curled up to just below her ear lobes. Finally, she wore a pair of small, full moon earrings.

Her true identity laid bare, Lunis' eyes started wobbling as her arched glare focused entirely onto Riku, her glistening pupils filled with so much anger and disbelief...

"I hate you so much..." Were the first words she spoke in her true voice, which was rather bubbly for someone her age...

_Next Time: What We're Fighting For_


	17. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16: Conviction of the Heart**

Kairi had been standing by waiting for an opportunity to hit Lunis while she was distracted with Riku. Then suddenly, Riku had changed into his light and dark fusion form and broken Lunis' mask off. Needless to say, what Kairi saw after that became a much high priority than the battle.

"Lunis is...a girl?" She whispered to herself as the goddess, not god, looked straight at Riku and started gnashing her teeth together for a mild scowl.

But after a while of that she closed her eyes and started to rise back onto her feet, remarking to Riku in her scantly mature tone of voice, "You broke my mask, but that's it. This...this doesn't change anything."

Kairi felt the atmosphere tense up around Riku as he tossed a glare like a bullet at Lunis' face, forcing her eyes back open. The Lunar Deity glared back strongly, but her eyes were trembling in fright.

The two looked at each other shrouded in silence for a good ten seconds. It was Riku who parted the shroud to say in a curt manner, "I was right about you all along."

"What? That I was a girl?" Lunis said accusingly.

"No. I didn't consider that at all until we fought." Riku said, expressing his surprise in a much more relaxed manner than Kairi had.

He waved one hand out by his hip as he told the Lunar Deity, "You could mask your face but not your words. But now that I've gotten a look at your face I know for a fact..."

He slowly raised his pointer finger while curling the rest into the palm, "That you are not as convicted to your father's cause as you claim to be."

Lunis eyes froze wide-open and her pupils shrank to dots. Riku brusquely waved his hand around and committed his words to his foe's memory, "You've had the element of surprise on multiple occasions but never tried to wound or kill us. You gave us a longer time limit than needed to reach you. And, you refused to give a concrete answer on what drives you to fight."

"Because..." Riku closed his eyes temporarily and then thrust them open with immense force coming out of his glare, "**You** don't have your own reason to fight."

Lunis' glare narrowed and her body gave off this subtle tremor. When she tried glaring back at Riku her voice had gained a stutter, "I-I **said** I'm not going to play these psychological games with you!"

Riku was not going to relent on this. He had determined his path forward and his words would pave the way without a hint of hesitation, "I wondered why you wore that mask but I think I understand now..."

"Ghhh...!" Lunis bit her lower lip.

"You wanted to appear convicted to the cause, because your expression betrays you at every turn."

"Y-You're just speculating now!" Lunis proclaimed, not necessarily denying what Riku had proposed.

Riku lowered his hands to his sides and shook his head as he remarked, "I'm speaking from experience."

"I made a terrible mistake, and it got the life of a great hero. After that I started retreating into myself, believing that if I hid most of my emotions away behind a mask of solitude that I wouldn't make that same mistake again. But my mask was paper thin, and people have still managed to figure me out and exploit my emotions against me. So call it speculation if you must..."

Riku closed his eyes and relaxed his shoulders as he went out of his strange form and back into his base state. He then looked Lunis in her flabbergasted eyes and said, "But I'm not going to fight someone who doesn't want to fight."

Lunis' body trembled and her eyes watered slightly. Anger. Aggression. Her emotions were swelling and causing a silvery aura to rise from her body. In the blink of an eye Kairi saw Lunis draw her knives and lean forward.

"_Crap!" _Kairi bit her teeth and lunged straight ahead between Riku and Lunis. The goddess drew her knives in a diagonal cross and had her path blocked by the width of Kairi's staff plunged into the inner part of the blades.

Kairi dug her heels into the ground, grit her teeth, and stopped a few inches in front of Riku. She glanced over her shoulder and saw that Riku was being completely stone-faced throughout their clash.

"A-Are you for real?!" She exclaimed.

"Sorry about this. Can I leave this fight to you?" Riku responded in an apologetic tone.

Kairi squeezed her eyes shut and growled out her frustrations, "You know what I take back every nice thing I said earlier! All of you Whiters are a massive pain in the ass!"

Lunis applied more pressure and yelled at Kairi to "Get out of my way!"

Kairi faced the goddess head-on with arched brows and a steeled resolve before proclaiming, "Ain't gonna happen sister!"

Kairi wrapped her hands around the farther ends of her staff and thrust it forward with one hard grunt. Lunis was forced off a few inches away, and Kairi took a swing at her with her staff.

Lunis vaulted back and landed down on one knee for a moment. Kairi took a couple steps forward, twirled her staff, then locked it behind her back gripped in one-hand. She then thrust the other hand out from her chest and proclaimed, "Lover boy may not want to fight, but I sure as hell do! Or have you forgotten that **you** kidnapped Gabriel?!"

"L-Lover boy?" Riku mumbled in confusion.

Lunis stood up, her eyes wide and slightly tinted red with fury. Kairi then clutched her hand into a fist and proclaimed, "I invoke the Rite of Singularity!"

Just to make sure she wasn't blowing hot air for nothing, Kairi closed her eyes and saw a thin line of aura form between her and Lunis. Even a Prime Deity wasn't immune to this invocation.

Lunis gleamed at Kairi with a gaze of cold steel and mumbled "Fine". She then closed her eyes and part of her cloak ruffled underneath. A second later she threw the whole thing off and it fluttered to the ground behind her like a kite deprived of the wind.

All this time Lunis was wearing a form-fitting white latex body suit with silvery brush strokes painted on it. Given that the goddess has breasts just as big as her mother's with a wide set of thighs to boot, Kairi found her mind distracted for a moment or two. Curiously, the body suit's toes and fingertips were cut, with a small golden ring put at the cut off points. Lightweight, bumpy armored plates protected her upper arms and thighs, while thin rubber straps stretched over her shoulder, under her breasts, and down her abdomen and legs. And those legs of hers were a little longer than the rest of her body, which is probably part of why she was so tall.

Her figure not-withstanding, her appearance was befitting of both her roles as a ninja and the Prime Deity of the moon. With her gaze locked firmly onto her opponent, Lunis drew a fresh set of knives and crossed her arms before the chest, with the left hand wielding the knive underhanded.

"You may be Lady Auris' daughter, but that won't save you from the sting of my blades!"

Kairi waved her hand out and said confidently, "Bring it."

With narrowed gazes towards one another they dashed forward at high speeds and met in the exact center of where they once stood.

Kairi made the first attack by swinging her staff towards Lunis' hip. The goddess vaulted over her head and threw her knives straight below, slicing down the space between Kairi's shoulder blades.

Pain ignited Kairi's instincts to raise her aura in defense along her back. Lunis dropped to the ground in an instant, grabbed her knives before they hit the ground, then slashed along Kairi's aura as she twirled around and let momentum pull her away.

She failed to breech the aura deep enough and Kairi performed a hard turn around after a hop, raising her staff high above her head. She brought it down towards Lunis' face but the goddess made a swift, if short, retreat and flung one of her knives towards Kairi's face.

Kairi swung her head right as she rose off the ground and the blade's edge only gave her cheek a paper cut. Then she heard the blade being snatched up in another Lunis' hand and turned her head back, telling herself in a frantic tone, _"Crap! I forgot about the copies!"_

The second Lunis was already moving to swing the knife down when she had caught it. Kairi HAD to turn around to block it from reaching her back, but that would just expose it to the original. With some quick thinking in the heat of the moment Kairi gripped her staff and smacked the copy in the side of the head. Then she continued to spin and found herself eye-to-eye with Lunis as the latter was lunging in for a presumed attack on the back of her legs.

Lunis had to abandon her efforts and instead slip to the left of Kairi's body to avoid the wrath of her staff. She cut the side of Kairi's thigh in compensation for her failure. Kairi briefly bit her teeth but refused to slow down for the pain. Though her body was a little off-balance and her leg muscles twisted, she continued her 540 degree spin and pushed her staff harder towards the back of Lunis' head.

"**CRCCKK!" **Kairi heard the triumphant sound of staff against bone and knew she had gotten a direct hit on her opponent. Before her unstable body fell to the ground she saw the goddess flying a few feet across the air and heading on a one-way trip to the ground.

"_Ha! Take that!" _She congratulated herself prematurely, for Lunis retained enough consciousness to summon another clone and catch her out of the air.

"_Oh come on!" _Kairi pouted slightly watching the copy twirl around and throw Lunis straight back towards her.

"_No, stay focused Kairi...!" _Kairi eyed the ground and dispelled her staff to slam her palms down and catch herself. Lunis was coming in fast and those knives would surely hit something critical if allowed to.

Kairi quickly stood upright on her hands and vaulted over the goddess, her arms narrowly missing the sting of her blades. Lunis could've let things be and obeyed the laws of momentum, but with another clone she merely repeated the redirection process and sent Lunis skyward.

Kairi turned around and prepared her staff for combat. But Lunis moved in much faster this time and flipped in the opposite direction to ram her feet underneath Kairi's staff and into her gut. Kairi choked up some air and Lunis bounced off like a swimmer readying to take another lap.

Kairi fell hard against the ground and broke it apart, sliding away from the impact zone a few feet away. Lunis suspended herself in place, flipped back around, then flung her knives straight down.

Kairi's head was throbbing but her vision was clear enough to see the threat coming, and deflect it with her staff. Lunis flipped around one more time and plummeted down with her right leg stretched all the way out. Her descent, perfectly timed with a sting of pain in Kairi's head, allowed Lunis to drive the heel of her foot into Kairi's gut and drag her further along the ground.

Meanwhile a pair of her clones caught the flying knives and tossed them back into Lunis' hands. Lunis hopped and dove after re-positioning herself slightly so she could drive the knives into Kairi's legs.

Fortunately Kairi took a note out of Mew's playbook and propelled light energy from her feet to get out of the range of Lunis' attack. Then she turned upright and caught her breath, closing her eyes entirely unconsciously.

It seemed that no matter the setback, Lunis was determined to keep pressing forward. Lunis stayed hunched to the ground and tore her knives back through the ground like it was made of butter then started darting after Kairi.

The goddess bit her teeth with fury and lashed her heated knife up, throwing a flurry of sparks off onto Kairi's face. Thus the moment her eyes opened, they were shut tight, and a burning red tint filled the black void of her vision.

With her aura vision robbed for now Kairi had to rely on good old-fashioned instincts. She felt Lunis' movements in the air as the goddess hopped and attempted to deliver the steel of her knives into her face not just once, but twice in quick succession.

Kairi backed up to get out of her range, but Lunis still had enough space to continue spinning before she landed. And with that time she stretched one of her legs out and kicked the top of Kairi's head to stagger her. She landed cleanly on her other leg and stood upright after a twirl.

But then she bent down slightly and lunged forward, driving the knives towards Kairi's gut. Kairi bit her teeth down and shoved her staff in-between Lunis' blades, simultaneously striking the ground with a "Clang!"

Kairi's vision was starting to recover but Lunis was barely giving her the time of day to catch her breath. Lunis slid her knives around the staff and hit Kairi's sides. They didn't go too deep, but blood did start to leak out.

Lunis finally chose to retreat with a couple short hops and then replaced her blades with new ones. In that time span Kairi opened her eyes and crossed her arms under her chest to clutch the wounds and use aura to keep anymore blood from coming out.

She bit her teeth at Lunis and thought to herself, _"She's a lot more competent than her looks would suggest..."_

The stinging wounds could attest to that. Lunis took a couple short steps forward and swung one of her knives down to the ground. Her eyes were narrowed and her determination stronger than it appeared to be upon Riku exposing her true face.

"Do you see my will to fight now, Riku?! Or does your ally have to fall to get the point across?!" She was bravely boasting to try and goad Riku back into the fight.

Kairi took a hard glance to the right and saw Riku standing in quiet observation of the battle with both his arms crossed against his chest. It was annoying to say the least. But Kairi couldn't let him get involved now.

"Heh..." Kairi cocked a grin towards the goddess and proclaimed, "Sorry to disappoint, but you're stuck fighting me!"

"I **know** how the Rite works!" Lunis barked back as though her intelligence had been insulted which...wasn't exactly far from the truth. The goddess then stood still and crossed her arms like she had earlier, her gaze as sharp as the steel by her face.

"But **I'm** sorry to say...You're no match for me. You have your mother's guts, but not her strength!"

Kairi bit her teeth to let out a terse "Tsk!" as her right eye twitched. She then looked at the goddess and summoned her staff, lashing it down onto the ground so hard it released sparks.

"Try me..." She growled out defiantly, "You're all talk."

Lunis' eyes widened, a nerve had been struck. Kairi blinked once and Lunis had already crossed the gap between then, surrounded in a streak of silver.

Lunis swung down towards Kairi's waist but she retreated. Lunis dug her right heel into the ground and twisted her body to the left. She loosened the grip on one blade and caught it between her toes to extend the range of her kick.

Kairi ducked her head back and the blade passed on by her chin. Lunis then slammed her foot down and loosened her toes just enough to make the knife bounce back into her hand. She swung it out before her neck then slashed down at Kairi's chest.

Kairi slid her staff between her chest then wobbled it slightly to the right to catch Lunis' knife by the hook. She then alternated her grip to the other hand and lashed the staff down to the ground to, ultimately, temporarily disarm Lunis of one of her knives.

She then rose and bumped one end of her staff towards Lunis' chin. The goddess leaned back and swung her other knife up, hooking into Kairi's staff with one swift and strong thrust to pull it out of her grip slightly.

Kairi backed away and readjusted her grip while Lunis swept her foot at the ground to pick her knife off the ground. The two started their clash over from there.

Kairi turned her head to the side and nudge her head at Lunis. The goddess crossed her arms before her chest and twisted her hands around her knives to ensure they'd stick.

Kairi felt a presence on both sides and quickly glanced to find a couple copies of Lunis flying her way. So Kairi took her staff in front of her and spun it around to deflect knock them away. A couple more copies came from the back and the left, forcing Kairi to back away and turn around to hit them with her staff.

Then more copies came from the back and right of where she currently stood. So she turned again. More copies showed up. The process repeated. And it was making her lose track of where the real Lunis was. When she looked over her shoulder, they were no longer there.

"_These clones are so annoying!" _Kairi briefly bit her lip as a clone came after her from the left and the right this time. She stayed completely still and spun her staff, but right as those copies were hit Kairi could feel another Lunis coming at her from behind.

They were holding knives, so this had to be the real deal, right? Whether it was or not, Kairi leaped over them and they passed underneath. That Lunis then did an on-the-spot turnaround and flicked a knife at Kairi's chest, forcing her to block it with her staff.

And so she had no way of attacking downward, which is where another Lunis popped in to grab her by the right ankle. Kairi found herself tossed to the ground and her abdomen lurching up on impact. The Lunis that got to her then did a hop and spin into a drop kick atop Kairi's chest.

Kairi coughed up a lot of air and felt a little dizzy, not helped by a couple more Lunis copies coming and performing the same act onto her already weakened stomach.

"_Can't...lose focus!" _Kairi held on through nothing but her own grit and gusto. Her vision was maintained clearly enough to see the "real" Lunis come jumping at her with knives drawn behind the head.

Kairi levitated off the ground with the power of flight and quickly sped up her ascent to ram her forehead into Lunis'. The goddesses' shocked expression would become something of a happy memory for Kairi later down the road.

For now though Lunis was knocked onto her back and sent tumbling across the floor. Not that Kairi saw most of that. The concussive blow to the noggin left her rattled for a few moments.

When she stood upright she laid a hand on the front of her head and smirked. Lunis landed on her feet and laid close to the ground, propped up further by one hand laid flat under her chest.

Lunis narrowed her gaze and with a blunt "Hmph!" darted out of Kairi's line of sight, leaving behind a vague streak of silver towards her left.

Kairi's eyes widened and by the time she looked to the right Lunis had already run past her and cut along the bottom of her kneecaps. In the next blink of the eyes Lunis was back again and cut along the back of her legs.

Kairi only started to mount a defense after Lunis had zipped past and sliced her back twice. It'd take too much time to whack Lunis. Kairi thus gathered light into her staff and rammed it into the ground, causing light to erupt around her body and force the goddess to stop inches from hitting it.

Kairi then swung her staff out of the light and struck Lunis in the right shoulder. The goddess stumbled as Kairi flipped the staff around into her other hand and struck the opposite shoulder just as hard. Lunis sped back twenty feet in an instant and flung her knives left and right diagonally.

Kairi swung her staff down by her hip and kept it ignited with light as she charged straight at the goddess, refusing to play her games. Lunis widened her eyes with ferocity and zipped to the left past Kairi, snatching her knife out of the air and darting straight at her with it drawn behind her head.

Lunis whipped the blade down but missed just by the mere act of Kairi stopping in place. But in a curious move Lunis let go of her blade and it impaled into the ground right in front of Kairi's toes.

Kairi looked down at it without even thinking and watched as Lunis curled her fist and swung it back up into Kairi's jaw. Kairi felt part of her neck crick and her eyes froze all wide-eyed in surprise.

But never one to back down from a bare-knuckle brawl, Kairi grit her teeth, refused to let her feet leave the ground, and swung her head right down into Lunis' nose.

Lunis laid a hand on her nose immediately upon stumbling back and a bit of blood dribbled out onto the palm. Lunis didn't have any sort of comeback besides glaring at Kairi and curling her fist around the blood, and in the blink of an eye the goddess sped off.

Kairi turned to where the other knife was. It had traveled a couple hundred feet without being affected by gravity. Then Lunis snagged it out of the air and twisted back to thrust it straight towards Kairi.

There had always been an extra trick to Lunis' seemingly fruitless efforts and this was no different. Kairi propped her staff up ready to deflect the knife only for a Lunis copy to pop in. They grabbed the knife, delaying it for a second, then ran in and tried to ram the knife past Kairi's staff, only for the arm to be blocked by it instead.

The force of the blow managed to drag Kairi back, where she found her balance being thrown off by her heel hitting the knife that she had forgotten about. She tried a course correction using the power of flight. Two Lunis copies before her had different ideas about that.

Both jumped her sides and locked their arms underneath her shoulders to keep her from fighting back, then used their weight to drag Kairi to the ground.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Kairi expressed her disdain vocally for once as she started curling her fists and tried to punch the copies off her. But she couldn't make it.

The "real" Lunis jumped the great distance between them and drew two fresh knives at a cross before her neck, then dove in for the kill. Kairi panicked somewhat and tried to think of a comeback.

Her hands may have been out of commission but her feet were just fine. A crazy idea was brewing in her head, which she both blamed and thanked Mew's influence on. She cupped her feet together and waited for Lunis to get in close. Then, she resummoned her staff between them and immediately swung it up before it could have a chance of slipping out.

She somehow managed to ram the staff in front of Lunis' chest and hit her chin to knock her away. Then, for the moment at least, that freed her up to concentrate her energy throughout her body and launch the copies off with a burst of light and a brief, vigorous roar.

She got back onto her feet and turned around to find Lunis on the ground and turned to face her. Kairi brandished her staff forward in a mix of a defensive and offensive stance and felt her grip shaking.

"_There's __**got**__ to be some way to ensure I hit her and not a copy..." _Kairi took a deep breath and used the brief moment she had to gauge her surroundings. And that's when she looked up and remembered, _"There's a chandelier in the room..."_

Looking at her staff glowing positively bright, a small smile crept across her face as he told herself "Perfect..." and waggled her staff back towards Lunis.

The goddess lurched forward, held her knives by the hips, then darted straight ahead. Halfway towards Kairi she curved to the right while a copy went to the left, each holding a single knife in hand.

Kairi gripped her staff in both hands and with a short hop started spinning wildly. As a whirlwind of light she pushed the two Lunis' away from her and they vanished. Another Lunis waited for Kairi to land then came charging in from the front, twisting to the side to ram their right heel into her chin.

Kairi broke out of her spin by swinging her staff down with incredible force. Light flashed upon impact with the copy vanishing right after. Kairi turned around and diverted most of her energy into the tip of her staff. She slammed it down and a fireworks display of light went flying high into the air.

The Lunis that was coming at her stalled and backed up a couple steps, using the swift speed of her slices to cut down some of the projectiles coming her way. But while some went down, others continued to rise towards the chandelier and get absorbed in the crystals.

"_Gotta keep the pressure going...!" _Before her assault was through Kairi turned her staff down and then summoned a second staff made of light in her other hand.

"Here I come!" She yelled to ensure Lunis' full attention before darting straight at her.

Lunis threw a knife straight towards Kairi's chest. Kairi swung her right staff up to knock it skyward. A copy of Lunis appeared in the air to grab it and dive down towards her skull. Kairi hopped back, twirled on the spot, and struck the copy twice with her staffs.

She landed on stable footing and grit her teeth as the knife bounced upon leaving the vanished clone's hand, and into the grasp of another clone.

There was definitely some tell to the clones, but Kairi found herself under too much pressure to piece it together. The real Lunis was absolutely in her line of sight right now, and so she'd keep moving forward and not let her escape.

After ducking under the copies' slice Kairi darted ahead and raised her head. She grinded her staffs together and lashed them down to the floor. Her body briefly turned into a bolt of light to cover the remaining distance to the goddess before they could even think of retreating.

Upon re-emergence Kairi swung her left staff up at Lunis' face. Lunis gracefully flipped back onto her palms and twirled around with her long legs extended out to kick away at Kairi's face. Kairi planted her right staff into the ground as a pseudo-brake to Lunis' deadly dance.

The goddess froze momentarily and Kairi took another swing with the light staff. Lunis dropped her legs behind her and kept very close to the ground. She then took a desperate lunge forward and barreled through Kairi's legs to throw her off-balance.

Kairi's heart raced as she quickly spun around before the copies would come dogpiling from above. Which they still did, four of them in fact, but now Kairi had time to mount a defense.

She took her light staff and flung it straight up into all the copies, piling them up for the brief second they'd be maintained. But even after her targets had vanished Kairi kept the staff going up to fuel the chandelier, which turned positively radiant upon its touch.

Kairi landed on the edge of her heels and locked her other staff up in front of her body as Lunis came charging in. Sparks flew between their eyes and against their weapons as the goddess dragged Kairi along the ground. When no progress was being made to break her defenses Lunis hopped and rammed her feet into Kairi's thighs to achieve further heights.

Before Lunis drew her knives out for the attack Kairi pulled her staff back as far as her arm could go, lined it up with the chandelier rope, and sent it flying. Lunis instinctively pulled her body sideways to dodge it and continued diving towards Kairi while proclaiming, "You missed!"

"Nuh-uh!" Kairi playfully stuck out the tip of her tongue, closed her eyes, and jerked her thumb up at the air a couple times.

Lunis took a moment to glance back and saw Kairi's staff slice through the rope with ease. The goddess' eyes widened and then nearly bulged out of their sockets as Kairi drove her fist into her cheek so hard that the skin rippled.

A shockwave cracked through the air and Lunis was dropped shoulder first into the ground, where she slid back along to the direct center of the chandelier's descending shadow. The goddess' body trembled as they tried to stand back up.

They glared at Kairi, who waved their hand out to taunt them and then stuck their staff in the ground to summon a thick white barrier around their person. Kairi had to sort-of fill in the blanks with her imagination after that point.

The chandelier plummeted to the ground at breakneck speeds and Lunis tried to escape it. But even with her incredible speed there was no getting out of the preparations Kairi made. Cause that wasn't just a chandelier that hit the ground. It was a concentrated _**bomb**_ of light energy.

It shattered to pieces upon impact and half of the massive room was filled with a blinding flash of light. The sound of broken glass dwarfed the shocked cry of Lunis as her body was sent hurtling through the air towards the stone throne.

Her body hit the ground once and skipped along towards the inevitable. The back of her skull smashed into the throne and broke it in half, but to her "fortune" she stopped going any further than that.

By that point Kairi had dropped her barrier to check up on her opponent. Lunis' tall body was hung over on the throne looking rather limp, with barely a twitch coming from her fingers.

"D-Did I do it?" Kairi was cautious. All she knew for certain was that she DID hit the real deal.

What started as a twitch turned into a moan of pain as Lunis' right hand slid onto the arm of the throne and clutched the edge. Kairi widened her eyes and her heart skipped a beat. She raised her staff and prepared to move in.

The goddess pulled her body up. Her head was wounded and blood was trickling down the sides of her face. She stood straight up and her eyes were wobbling, like she was fighting the urge to cry from the pain.

"_You've GOT to be kidding me!" _Kairi's heartbeat hastened as it seemed that her foe's title would not be for show.

Lunis raised her right leg, took one step forward...And instantly dropped to one knee with her right arm clutching her abdomen and the other hand having to use the throne just to keep her from falling down.

"Gcchkkk! Chhh!" Lunis coughing up a bit of blood onto the floor was the sure-fire sign that Kairi, had in fact, triumphed over her opponent.

Her heartbeat steadied with a single, drawn-out breath, and from there she steeled her nerves and took a few steps towards her opponent. She kept her staff drawn and yelled out to Lunis, "Alright you, enough games! Tell me where Gabriel is before I **really **get angry!"

Lunis raised her head and immediately responded with, "H-He's not here..."

"What?!" Kairi's eyes flared open with incredible fury.

"I...I delivered him to father before you arrived...If...if you want to try and take him back, then you will have to go to where father is..."

"And where is Justek?!" Kairi demanded to know.

"If you catch up with Mew, then you'll already be on the right path..." Lunis clutched her hand tightly around the arm of the throne and forced herself to stand up. She looked at Kairi with a twinge of pity in her gaze and said, "But its not going to make a difference. I-If this is your best effort...Then you don't stand a chance against father."

Kairi's skin felt cold and riddled with goosebumps for a moment, and the air turned dead around her. A rift then suddenly opened up behind Lunis. It was shaped like an oval, and wisps of dark fog spewed around the rim of the rift.

The goddess then turned her head towards Riku, who had slowly went to Kairi's side beneath either of their notices. Lunis narrowed her gaze and bitterly clenched her teeth.

"...This...this isn't over between us Riku...We'll meet again, and next time you'll be forced to acknowledge the strength of my heart."

Riku shook his head slightly and asked Lunis a poignant question without a hint of malice to his voice, "And so you're going to put your life on the line for this? If that's what your father wants-"

"Then I don't care!" Lunis blurted out tearfully, tearing through the blood that rose from her throat, "You don't know me, or my family! S-So stop pretending like you do!"

After a long silence on Riku's end, Lunis curled her fist, and punched the arm of the throne as she turned and slipped into the closing rift.

Riku hung his head and closed his eyes with a deep breath out. Kairi too lowered her head and her hands went limp with disappointment.

"_Gabriel..." _This was a victory...But felt like a defeat.

…

…

Kairi looked up at Riku and he was still looking down in the dumps. At least, as much as he was willing to show. It was a spur of the moment decision, but Kairi decided to clock him atop the head with her fist to get his attention.

He didn't even respond with an "Ow!" as he turned and rubbed the top of his head. Kairi propped her fists on her hips and grumbled aloud, "Ugh, honestly...The moment you and Mew see a pretty face its like your hearts turn to jello."

Riku looked mildly surprised at her then crossed his arms against his chest and firmly remarked, "That's **not** what happened here."

"Uh-huh..." Kairi leaned forward with her eyes half-open. But he didn't change expression, even as she stared him down.

"...Ugh, fine. I don't believe you, but fine," Kairi stood back up and put her arms under her chest before mumbling, "We beat her, so now what?"

"Lets first head outside and check on the Earth." Riku remarked.

With no better options, they left the Lunar Palace. Riku had to push the doors open but did so with astonishing ease, even though they were so big and tall. And the first thing they saw was their home, freed from its icy cage, and returned to its blue-and-green glory.

"She actually dispelled the barrier..." Kairi whispered in surprise, her wide-eyes staring at and reflecting the Earth's beauty.

"..." Riku lowered his hands to his hips and slowly turned to face Kairi, "Kairi."

"Huh?" Kairi turned her head slightly to the right. The Earth's glow from the sun shining on it, how peaceful it looked...This was truly the hypnotic beauty that Mew had wanted to see before.

"I'm glad you were here to help, but its only going to get tougher from here on out. There's...a possibility that even working alongside my brother, we might not be able to stop Justek. And if so then-"

"I'm going." Kairi quietly remarked, leaving Riku stunned silent for a moment.

"Excuse me?" He remarked.

"I'm. Going," Kairi propped her fists on her hips and leaned towards Riku, "Its like Mew said...Justek made this my fight the moment he attacked my home."

"If something happened to you-"

"Do I **look** like I need protecting right now? If anything its safer being with you and Mew than it is on Earth."

"...Nothing's going to persuade you?" Riku dryly inquired.

"Nope!" Kairi bluntly declared.

With a turn back to the right Riku looked up at the starry night sky and cracked a tiny smile as he said, "Then lets go. My brother's waiting."

He then started to kneel down, prompting Kairi to wave her hands out and say, "N-No need for that! I should be able to keep up with you just fine with my Angel Drive!"

Riku got back up, nodded, and made one last passing remark, "Its going to be a long trip away from home."

"Then lets make sure it'll be here for us when we get back!" Kairi proclaimed with determination.

"...Yeah." Riku nodded his head, caught up in the alluring beauty of the planet Earth.

With Mew's trail of energy still fresh, the two of them protected themselves from the harsh elements of space, and sped off into the darkest depths as fast as they possibly could.

All this was just the prelude...The true battle with their enemy began now.

_Next Time: Parallelism_


	18. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17: Mask of Destruction**

_Roughly one hour ago..._

Far from any form of life, the demon blade of the destroyer clashed with the slab of stone the Sun God called his sword. Solaris fell back with every blow, trying his damnedest to escape.

_Futile._ There was no escaping the Phoenix once its narrow crimson eyes sought out its prey.

Solaris' body burned brightest out in space and his flames splashed across the dark depths like orange paint on a canvas. His blood was slowly being added to this malicious painting as the Phoenix of Destruction slammed his fists into the gods hips, and made blood spill from his mouth.

"B-Bastard! Get away from me already!" Solaris roared in the empty depths a cry of fear and anger. He raised his beaten blade high above and slashed down, dragging out a heavy wave of flame that'd travel for months before fizzling out.

The Phoenix lurched around and laughed at the child's empty words, his eyes as wide as quarters, "What's wrong?! Isn't this the fight you WANTED?!"

He rammed his right fist into the blunt edge of Solaris' sword and the skin of his knuckles split, the muscle underneath a dark shade of purple. As his own sword rammed into his body, Solaris watched the whole thing become fragmented, the pieces levitating just out of his reach.

He had no time to mourn his weapon as the Phoenix tackled him in the gut and sped through hundreds of miles of space in the span of seconds, his body an ignited arrow of bile and hate.

The Phoenix slammed against a lonesome meteorite and shattered its goliath form upon Solaris' back before finally letting go. Solaris staggered upright with his face half-drenched in his own blood. He viciously swung his arms out and filled his cone of vision with his flames.

The Phoenix need only power through them at a needlessly sluggish pace before squeezing his hand tightly around the Sun God's neck. He hauled Solaris above him and fiddled his fingertips along the neck one at a time. He then started to plunge the tip of his pinky into the skin and twisted it around, the blood droplets floating out and burning away to dust upon his flames.

"You call yourself a God but you're just a scared little child...!" The right side of the Phoenix's face twisted to conform to his smirk. Solaris clasped his hands around the Phoenix's wrist and tried to pull it away. The trembling, cowardly way of which he fought back brought a warm smile to the destroyer's face.

"Come on now, don't break on me yet...We still have a long way to go before we've reached your father!" The Phoenix lashed his arm down and flung Solaris through a few large pieces of space junk. As the Sun God defiantly stood upright and threw his body into full throttle, the Phoenix was more than happy to put those flames out once more.

He rocketed after his prey with the expanse of his face stretching from the pressure and his arms being forced back to his sides. Mere feet away from Solaris, however, the Phoenix slammed into a strange, invisible force and recoiled a good hundred feet back.

He quickly regained consciousness and warped back over to what he hit. A subtle ripple crossed the thin border between him and Solaris, and when he place his hand on the center of what he hit another one pushed out for a slightly longer distance.

The Sun God panted and clutched one arm under his chest. An irritated smirk formed as he suddenly raised his head and yelled, "I had him father! You didn't have to go and butt in!"

Solaris' eyes quickly went wide and he bit his teeth down like he was cold. And in turn, his skin turned a paler shade. Lowering his head, he murmured, "F-Fine...Whatever."

And then he turned a sharp eye towards the Phoenix of Destruction and proclaimed, "This isn't over yet bastard! Next time we meet, you're de-"

The Phoenix punched the invisible force super hard and the individual ripples were each a foot tall. He then burrowed his fingertips into the barrier and scraped them down, a grinding screech penetrating the other side. And after his "claws" were burned into the barrier, the Phoenix taunted the frightened Sun God with a smile.

"Run along little boy. You wouldn't want your father to put you in time out..."

A pained snarl was the last thing Solaris attempted before turning tail and bolting straight towards the sun behind him. The Phoenix then bit his lower lip and let out a snarl of his own.

He craned his head back at this curious barrier and murmured to himself as the flames rose from his body, "Just another obstacle to break..."

_Close to present time..._

Mew continued his pursuit of Alex through the depths of space. His world wasn't even a speck in the distance by now. This hadn't been his first time traveling through space. Nor was it the first time he was doing it alone. Well, the second part isn't true counting _you-know-who_, but Mew felt better off not thinking about him right now, especially since he was the reason his first time in space had also been his last until now.

"_Alex's trail is still warm...Him and Solaris really had it out didn't they?" _With how astronomically big space was the odds of finding Solaris' body, assuming he had been killed, wasn't even a one-in-a-million shot. But it was a little comforting for Mew that he hadn't run across it yet.

"_Solaris may have done some bad things but...I got the vibe that he was doing what his dad wanted him to. And...for a Sun God, he's kind of a dim bulb,"_ Mew shook his head slightly and had a laugh aloud at his expense, "Gee, here I am sympathizing with the enemy."

After a bit more canned laughter Mew kept on the straight and narrow and sped through space with a smile. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes with Kairi and Riku's appearances in the back of his mind, _"I REALLY hope I made the right call leaving those two alone."_

He imagined Kairi jumping on Riku's back and pulling at his face while Riku reached back and did the same to hers.

"Ha...If only." A bit of joking around kept 'D.' at bay. Though, the moment Mew thought of his name, his curiosity got the better of him. He realized that the demon had been uncharacteristically quiet ever since Justek came into the picture.

The demon had to have been around for all that, so why wasn't he saying anything? The demon was so chatty and full of insults towards people from that era, but _Justek_ is apparently his mute button? Is "D." afraid of Justek? Do they have a personal beef with each other? Or is something _else_ going on? No matter the answer, a silent "D." felt like a bad omen...

For right now though, there was another "demon" to deal with. Mew flexed his weary eyelids a bit upon feeling a surge of energy coming from straight ahead. He could see flames flying out in a cascade with Alex as its obvious centerpiece.

Mew paused for a moment and said after a sigh, "That guy's never out of energy huh?"

He flew straight into danger without losing his top-notch smile. By the time he was getting close enough to feel the heat, the flames stopped coming out. He witnessed Alex slowly slip away from what appeared to be a barrier and a rather tough one at that, if even Alex couldn't break through.

"Hmph, you cannot delay the inevitable Justek...We **will** break through."

Alex tightened his fists and started burning up for what was in Mew's eyes round two. Before the fist was flung however, Mew floated up next to him and said in a casual tone, "Want some help?"

Alex froze momentarily with his eyes thrust right open and his fist hovering beside his face. Mew waved at him then tucked his hands into his pockets.

Alex slowly lowered his arm down to his side and closed his eyes with a smile to say, "You've always been full of surprises..."

His words, though sounding kind, were spoken with a venomous intent. The Phoenix creaked his eyelids open to a slit and his harrowing crimson gaze poked through. His smile perked up, and his tone turned to outright malice, "Though then again, a wounded puppy _will_ always return to its master."

Mew pulled his arms, crossed them by his chest and tapped his foot down a few times to say, "Couldn't be bothered to say 'Hi' or 'Hello' huh?"

Mew smiled at Alex. He did not smile back, but he did not scowl either. He closed his eyes, turned back at the barrier, and whipped his hand up in a dismissive manner.

"Do whatever you want. It'll make no difference..."

"Aaaaaalright..." Mew took that sort-of as a challenge and immediately turned on the barrier with his body in a battle stance. He squinted where the barrier was supposedly and started drumming his fists against it from hip-level.

Hundreds of ripples spread out but didn't go far. With one hard downward swing the last ripple went out for much longer, but there was no lasting impact on the barrier. Mew then backed up, and swiped his hand under his sweating chin.

"Tough piece of shit ain't it?" He laughed it off, swung his sore knuckles around in the air, then laid his hand against the barrier.

"If we couldn't break through, what hope do you have?" Alex rudely chimed in, only to be promptly ignored with a roll of Mew's eyes.

"Its funny...This barrier reminds me a lot of what Mr. Reality used to protect the Light Palace," Mew's bit of nostalgia led to him glancing at Alex and asking, "Do you remember that at all?"

"We suppose so." Alex muttered out in a distant tone as he appeared more interested in scanning the barrier and delivering ultimately neutral responses.

"How did I get through that again...?" Mew tried to recollect the events that transpired that day and his eyes quickly lit up as he remembered, "Oh right! Alpha shot some dimensional cannon at it to break through!"

He turned to Alex and saw him still and silent, his head turned away from Mew's general direction. Mew snapped his fingers twice and said, "Hey Alex! Why don't you try using the Time Stone?"

"You think we haven't?" Alex scoffed with a nasty turn of the head. When he turned back he rolled his hand around by his head and remarked like talking down to a child, "Freezing time doesn't remove the problem. And when we tried to warp past it the barrier warped after us and flung us back."

"So all bases have been covered..." Mew put a hand up to his chin and tapped his left cheek in thought, "So I guess we gotta fulfill some specific condition to move on."

"As much as we loathe to admit it, you're probably right..." Alex snarled his teeth and tucked both hands into his pockets, "We tried to investigate the nearby planet Venus..."

Mew's heart skipped a beat and he turned to face Alex covered in a cold sweat. But the Phoenix simply shrugged his tired shoulders and remarked, "But there was not a single thing or person in sight."

Mew let out a deep sigh and thought to himself, _"Whew, I was worried about Maria for a second there...Guess she must've been called in for Planetary Aurian business."_

Alex faced him with a wide smile and started to shake his head, "We hardly can understand why Justek would bother delaying his fate. That wyrm knows that his destiny is to die at our hands."

"Yeah our job would be so much easier if the bad guys just wanted to die," Mew started cracking a joke but got to thinking, "Wait you want to **kill** Justek?"

"Yes, you deaf dunce." Alex snipped back at him.

Mew leaned his head to the left and scratched the right side, his eyes wincing out of confusion, "But when you were getting all apocalyptic back on Earth you said that Justek would lead to the end of everything..."

"Our goals are not necessarily separate from one another...The end of everything **means **everyone dies too, even the one responsible."

Mew sighed and argued the main point in all this, "Well I'm not going to let either you or Justek get your way. What do you have to say to that?"

"We'd have to say...you're an idiot in over his head, but that answer should come as no surprise anymore."

"Yeah," Mew leaned a hand up against his hip and shook his head, "Ever since you developed this destroyer persona talking to you has been kinda one-note."

"Hrrmmm..." Alex grumbled quietly.

Mew opened his eyes partway and said, "What happened to you Alex? I know its been three years but like...To go from a recluse in hobo clothes to the destroyer of worlds?"

"An exaggeration." Alex remarked.

"Pardon me?" Mew said confused.

"Destroyer of worlds is a title befitting of that weakling Galactus. We do not destroy worlds. We'd prefer to take our time dealing with their inhabitants one by one..." Even for how malicious Alex came across Mew couldn't take anything he said seriously. His words were emptier than his eyes.

"Uh-huh..." He appropriately replied in a droll tone of voice, "Though its 'funny' you bring up Marvel, cause from what Riku told me you destroyed their world."

Alex's eyes narrowed as he muttered back in mild surprise, "...Oh, did he now? And just **who** told him?"

"..." Mew puckered his lips slightly and remarked, "Thanos did. Alex...don't say he was telling the truth."

"So there **was** a survivor. How ironic that it'd be him..." Alex leaned his head back and chuckled deeply to himself.

"...So you won't deny it." Mew remarked with a bit of melancholy in his voice.

"We destroyed Marvel...but we also did not destroy Marvel. Essentially, there is nothing worthwhile to confirm nor deny about what you learned."

"...Hmmm..." Mew breathed in deep through his nostrils and tried to steady his raising heart beat. He then turned to his side and glared straight into Alex's eyes.

"I...don't think you would have had it in you to go that far." He said in a firm but sincere tone.

"Interesting..." Alex cocked a small smile for a moment, "You'd rather believe us over that doubly worthless copy?"

"I-I..." Mew felt his resolve faltering for a moment but simply flat-out refused to yield to his doubts, "I'm not taking sides here. Both you and Riku are my brothers."

"We burned that worthless familial bond long ago...Your obsession with us is a faulty one-way road, replica."

"Fine. I don't care," Mew steeled his gaze wide-open against Alex and told him bluntly, "That road may be long, but I'll keep walking it until I can catch up, and save you from what you've forced yourself to become."

Alex floated in place, solemnly, and closed his eyes. He let out a dry chuckle and cherry-picked one of Mew's words to mock.

"'Forced'..." He drew his hands from his pockets and held them beside himself as he shook his head, "We are not responsible for what we have become."

He threw his arms out, reared his head back, and yelled dramatically into empty space, "Our creation was the inevitability of this universe's whims!"

After that overzealous display he leaned his head slightly to the right so his gaze would reach Mew. His sneer remained plastered onto his face as he remarked in a slow, gruesome tone, "Take away a child's parents. Subject him to the worst humanity has to offer. Lead him to ultimate power. Tear away all that he believed was true and then finally, you crush his heart...That is the perfect recipe to create the perfect destroyer."

"..." Mew looked at Alex with his eyes quivering but his heart remaining strong. Alex genuinely believed in his own pain and suffering, that much was true. But in Mew's eyes, there was something missing from all this.

"Your life sucked. You made me see that. But you braved that pain for so long and tried to be good..." Mew couldn't bear playing this back-and-forth game with his brother anymore. He went straight to the point, "You're avoiding the question Alex. Something or some_one_ finally made you snap. And I'm not going to stop bugging you until you fess up."

Alex repositioned himself upright and laughed at Mew's bravery, "Yes you've made that abundantly clear to us. But what is a little soul-crushing despair without some build-up? You will come to understand our pain, and break to pieces just as we did..."

Mew went dead silent as Alex turned his back on him and peered at him only over his shoulder, "It began as all tales of heartbreak do...With a girl."

"In our darkest hour, this girl came to us for help. Her silky golden hair, draped over her angelic body, lured us to aid our cause. We broke our vow of solitude for a chance at redemption and traveled the universe in search of the means to bring her enemy down."

"It was a journey that spanned two years and six worlds...We came across the heroes of other worlds and fought the worst their planet had to offer. As our battles grew tougher, so too did our bonds become stronger. We at first couldn't stand that girl and her irritatingly optimistic outlook at life...We tried to crush her spirits and make her face the cold harsh reality..."

"But...she never did yield. She bent her knee at the ground, but would always find the strength of heart to stand back up. She suffered pain and cruelty the likes of which would have turned our heart black...And yet her soul remained as pure as the purest light."

"And it was that light that reached out to us in our most desperate moment and reignited our urge to live...But only for a time. We loved that girl. We vowed to give anything to protect her. But the universe despised that we were happy. Its jealousy gave birth to an agent of chaos – a witch shrouded in gray, to tear our heart to pieces."

"At every turn the witch combated our advance to our final destination. She spewed her vile from her venomous maw and twisted our understanding of what we were and what we were destined to become. And in her most cruelest act of all, the witch blinded our eyes to an obvious truth...And made us believe that the girl we loved had betrayed us."

"And when all was said and done...And the veil had been lifted...It was still that girl's blade which found itself plunged into our heart."

Alex squeezed his fist upon uttering the last word and then twisted his body sideways at Mew. He reared his head back and flashed a wide grin his way, "And even after we turned the heavens upside-down in our pursuit of the witch, karma failed to drag her to hell. Because in this world, only the truly unrepentant get what they want. You can save countless lives, but all that awaits for you in the end is pain, misery, and a slow, lonesome death."

He spun his body at Mew and squeezed his fists, one before his waist and the other thrust out beside him, "The wicked thrive and the just fail to do their part! This universe is a program with a flawed code that needs to be deleted completely, leaving no trace behind!"

"..." Mew closed his eyes and only had to ponder briefly on what he heard, "My biggest takeaway from all that is that you really seemed to care for this girl Alex."

"...We did," Alex seemed loathed to admit, "But what we felt does not change the end result. When death failed to ferry us away and we awoke from the afterlife...She wasn't there to greet us."

"We weren't dead for that long. We found it hard-pressed to believe that she wouldn't have been there to mourn us. We clung to the possibility that she had chosen to prioritize her mission, but that was merely a thin strand of hope for us to try and crawl out of the abyss of despair. In truth, though the witch had failed in her deception, the girl we loved still ultimately betrayed us."

"What?" Mew stared at Alex looking all dumbfounded.

"That's right...And for as short a time as this world has left, you will come to understand this same feeling of betrayal from that muse you care for. How woefully fitting, seeing as she is that traitor's little sister..."

"...W-What?!" Mew's heart skipped a beat. Alex had just sucker punched him with the last thing he had expected to hear from this conversation. And never one to go easy when he had a foe at his mercy, Alex followed-up on Mew's confusion right away.

"Oh you hadn't pieced it together yet? The girl I was referring to this whole time was one _Shina Aurora_."

That was...quite a lot for Mew to wrap his head around to say the least. It was hard to deny that this was an act of fate. But it would be easy to deny what Alex was saying now.

"Shina Aurora? THAT Shina Aurora?" Mew remarked in reference to the kind-hearted, caring sister that Kairi hyped her up to be.

"Even the brightest gems can hide their darkest scars, replica." Alex coldly replied.

"Maybe so, but I ain't about to believe she counts."

"You're so naive...Always trying to see the best in people no matter how much they spit in your face. The world can't always be black and white, Mew."

"MAYBE SO!" Mew swung his right arm out vigorously, "But you must think I'm really stupid if you expect me to believe that Shina betrayed you!"

"And on what grounds do you have the right to overwrite OUR history? Would you dare to look me in the face and call all our pain and anguish a lie?"

"I would!" Mew narrowed his gaze straight at Alex's face and thrust his pointer finger at him, "Everything you said about the witch is probably true...I could understand feeling slighted by what she did. But Shina Aurora's 'betrayal' is sure as hell not the reason you became like this Alex!"

Alex snarled his teeth together and growled through them, "You do not know our pain."

"I don't think I couldn't..." Mew settled his hand into a weak fist by his hip and tried to smile at his brother as he spoke, "Because most of me came FROM you."

Alex's eyes flared open and his teeth shook. He rushed Mew, grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, and turned to slam him into the barrier. He shoved him up and tearfully screamed into his face, "I CREATED YOU TO BE THE BEST PERSON I COULD NEVER HOPE TO BE!"

For a brief moment, Alex's eyes returned to their original color, only to be swiftly hidden behind his eyelids as he hung his trembling head and bit his teeth into a scowl.

"A-And I've been jealous of you ever since..."

Mew didn't fight back. Alex's tears dripped onto his knuckles and then rolled onto Mew's shirt. But it was a moment of honesty that wasn't built to last. Alex's lips spread into a smile and when he raised his head back up his irises were back to being red.

"This world no longer has a need for an 'Alex Whiter'. He's dead and buried. We, the Phoenix of Destruction, rose from his ashes."

Mew arched his brows and had words for this destroyer, "Quit fooling around Alex."

"This is no game re-"

"Shut up," Mew felt some determination rising up like the ember that started a mighty inferno, "You've been full of shit from the very start."

"How dare you-!"

"You had plenty of opportunities to kill me with the Time Stone in your possession, but you didn't. You've denied the past but couldn't even scratch your old house. You say you despise Shina but didn't even make a move on her home until Solaris showed up there."

"Releasing Justek? Calling yourself the Phoenix of Destruction? This isn't some new attitude for you Alex...You're just doing what you've always done: Running away. Only this time you're trying to drag the rest of the universe down with you."

Alex pulled Mew off the barrier and slammed him back in while exclaiming, "Shut up. SHUT. UP!"

Mew reversed the situation on Alex by reaching down, grabbing him by the shirt, and hoisting him up level with his face just so he could scream into it, "When are you going to wake up and realize that you're not alone?!"

Alex's eyes widened as Mew clenched his teeth and told him, "Driad misses you. Alpha wanted to help you. Shina loved you. And despite everything you've done, everyone you've hurt, my stupid sorry ass still wants to save you even if it kills me! So quit being such a plural speaking drama queen!"

Alex thrust his arms around Mew's and grabbed him by the neck, "Traitors! All of them! If not then, they would betray us eventually!"

"S-Shina didn't..." Mew smirked throughout Alex choking him, "The fact that you couldn't even come up with a damn decent lie to implicate her says enough..."

As quickly as Alex's hands were on him, the destroyer pulled them away and brought them to his sides. His body trembled and he closed his hands into fists.

Mew let him have that. There'd be no point in talking anymore. After a few seconds of silence, Alex turned to his side and started floating away from him.

"I suppose we brought this tomfoolery upon ourselves..." He muttered in some fruitless attempt to save face.

Buuuuuut, that conversation could be returned to another time.

"Mew!"

"There you are brother."

Mew looked up to the left a bit and Riku and Kairi came flying in, where they dropped their angelic forms upon floating up in front of him. He waved his hand up and cheerfully said, "Oh hey guys! Didn't think you'd catch up that fast!"

He then eased up slightly and gestured his hand to say, "So, Lunis is beaten?"

"Yes, though she retreated back to her father." Riku remarked.

"...I'm sorry did you just say 'she'?" Mew said after fluttering his eyelashes a few times.

"Yeah. She was a pretty ugly vixen," Kairi hastily remarked, "ESPECIALLY after I beat her."

"You beat her?" Mew kept his eyes wide-open for a bit after.

"Well I had no frickin' choice after your brother started thinking with his di-"

"Good job Kairi!" Mew flashed a big, bright smile and clutched his arms up against his chest, "You snagged us our first victory against Justek!"

"U-Uhhh..." Kairi's face turned light red and after she twisted her head she muttered, "T-Thanks...?"

"But why are you here brother? Were you unable to find the Phoenix of Destruction?" Riku inquired.

"Oh no I found our resident edgelord...But he's kinda in a brooding mood after our family counseling meeting." Mew cocked his head at Alex, who gleamed over his shoulder and snarled out a "Hmph!" in response.

As Riku and Kairi freaked out a bit at Alex being in such close proximity to them Mew prioritized the problem at hand and turned around to the barrier, "Aaaaand unfortunately, I kinda hit a snag with this here barrier..."

He put his hand on it and instead of the usual ripple a giant static square suddenly appeared across it. Mew recoiled and swung his arms around above his head, letting out an overexcited "Whoa!"

Riku and Kairi turned their attention to the screen and Alex bothered to do the same. It remained static even as a voice started to address the four.

"_I see the four of you have finally gathered here. I wish to commend you on making it past my children." _The voice was heavily distorted, making it rather alien-like. But they were starting off sounding rather polite.

"So you're Justek..." Riku remarked the obvious, then crossed his arms against his chest.

"_And you are Riku, the third of the Elemental Overlord's successors. Though I am fond of formalities, I suppose it'd be rather rude...Seeing how we aren't face-to-face yet."_

"That can be arranged...If you'd stop hiding behind this barrier." Alex responded with a sinister tone and smile.

"_Hahahah. A good jest, Phoenix of Destruction. Though four of you are here, at the present, only two of you are privileged with the honor of coming to my location."_

"What do you mean?" Mew inquired.

"_Mew. Kairi. I will allow you both to pass through the barrier. But as for you, Riku...Phoenix of Destruction...Your path diverges to the planet Venus."_

"Interesting..." Alex's smile creased out, "So we weren't mistaken after all."

"_Even a broken clock is right twice a day," _Justek remarked following a mild chuckle, _"To put this as kindly as I can...Lets just say the two of you did not meet the requirements to pass my test. You may think of what awaits you as a chance at some extra credit."_

"And if one of us fails to pass this time?" Riku pointed out.

"_Oh, there is no chance of that. I do not care who succeeds. You will both be granted passage if you do." _

"You're talking like their victory is assured. Have you uhhh...forgotten that you're the bad guy?" Mew asked while circling a finger beside his head.

"_Yes. I am the 'bad guy'. So am I not entitled to a little satiation for my curiosity?" _

"I guess so...?" Mew cautiously answered. Then Kairi nudged him in the side with her elbow.

"Mew, this doesn't sound right. He's wanting to split us up." She whispered in his ear.

"_Well duh. And he's chosen one of the worst possible combos..." _He glanced at Alex and then back at Riku. Riku looked at him from out of the corner of his eye and turned to face him fully.

"Don't worry about me brother. I won't be too far behind." He said with confidence.

Alex turned away from the screen and floated past the group, eyeing Kairi just long enough to make her squirm. He then grinned at Riku and remarked, "Lets get this over with, dead weight."

Riku found himself essentially forced to follow the guy he hated into battle against an unknown enemy. They sped off to the planet Venus, and so Mew was left with Kairi to deal with Justek.

"_Color me surprised. I didn't expect either one of them to be so..."_

"Cooperative?" Mew finished, sounding just as surprised as Justek.

"_Indeed. Well, a promise is a promise." _Upon finishing his sentence a gap opened up in the barrier big enough for the two of them to fit through.

"_Once you pass on through it'll just be a short flight, relatively speaking, to the ship where I am at."_

"What's it look like?" Kairi asked.

"_It won't be hard to find, even against the searing heat of the sun." _

"T-T-The sun?!" Kairi understandably freaked out.

"_Calm yourself. I asked Solaris to turn down the heat for your safety. Right now you couldn't even toast a marshmellow on it!" _

"...Well excuuuuuuse me if I don't believe you!" Kairi responded, still sounding a tad freaked out.

"He wouldn't lie to us," Mew deduced as he narrowed his gaze near the top of the static screen, "Cause any host wants guests for the big party right?"

"_...And you'll be dropping by without me setting up the decor. How rude of me." _On that rather odd comeback, the static disappeared like it would on an old TV going off.

Mew fluttered his eyelashes a few times then turned to Kairi and asked, "Ready to go?"

"You guys don't have to keep asking me that y'know..." She bemoaned loudly.

"S-Sorry, force of habit." Mew chuckled in response, then allowed her to take the first pass through the barrier. He stuck behind, looked down at Venus, and said "Good luck you two" before heading through himself.

_Next Time: Reunion_


	19. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18: Chaotic Dive**

Another detour. Another opponent. But of this Riku could be certain – this would be the last thing standing between him and Justek. As he made his way to the planet Venus he kept his eye on the Phoenix of Destruction the entire way through.

With the final battle seemingly fast approaching the former Elemental Overlord was still standing, his body rotting, exuding with malice. His motives were easy to read, his actions not-so-much.

This wasn't to be a team-up. Riku was about to enter a three-way battle where the opposition will undoubtedly try to eliminate him first.

"_I need to avoid keeping my back exposed at all times. Eyes on both enemies. If I can manipulate the situation to get the Phoenix of Destruction killed I should take it..." _Riku trembled slightly when Alex tried looking at him over his shoulder and smirked, _"...But I still don't know what can put him down, if anything."_

There were three priorities for Riku going into this fight: Survive, observe more of Alex's weaknesses, and if possible, exploit them. Nothing else mattered. Not even the identity of his opponent. Cause he doubted that Justek could bring forth anyone that'd be a greater threat than him or the Phoenix of Destruction.

Just a few yards away from landing on the surface Riku summoned a wind barrier to keep the hot dust storm from affecting him. Not even the Phoenix of Destruction dared tempt Venus' wrath, and did the same.

The Phoenix took the lead and glared at Riku over his shoulder to comment, "Don't die too quickly on us now, scum."

Unnecessary haggling but its not like Riku expected any better from the living apocalypse. All he had to do was refuse to feed his fires of hate and focus on his surroundings. Ignoring the whipping winds for a moment, all was calm.

The land was inhospitable. Whomever Justek called to challenge them had to be someone who could challenge the storm and come out on top as its master.

And as soon as Riku had considered that, the wild winds suddenly parted into a circle around him and the Phoenix. Their heated, skin-searing grains, held back by black winds...Their quiet howl, crisp with the scent of absolute darkness.

Riku felt the familiar presence coming from a mile away but couldn't draw his sword in time to defend against it. So it was fortunate that he was not the presence's target. Stabbing into the Phoenix like a bolt of black lightning was Joe Dark with his trusty dagger.

Riku hardly had time to blink yet the Phoenix had managed to hold his hands up and catch the dagger between them. The darkness erupting split the ground at their feet as the two old enemies met eye-to-eye for the first time in years.

What was shared in their gaze was not some sense of nostalgia, but fury. The Phoenix raised a smile and started to laugh. Starting soft, then growing louder as Joe Dark attempted to push the dagger in further. The tip of the blade got to the space between the Phoenix's eyes.

"Well well, this is a pleasant surprise..." He muttered aloud.

"Whi...ter...!" Joe Dark struggled to get his own voice out. His eyes remained as pale as before, signifying that though the body was still his, Justek was the one in control of his mind.

"That's right you useless heap of trash, I'm here!" The Phoenix shoved Joe Dark off and he floated down to the ground on his feet. He grabbed the side of his head, bit his teeth down, and was fighting a prolonged battle to regain control.

"Hnnngh...! How...dare you control...ME?!" But it was a fight fought in vain. The brief glimmer of color in his eyes was consumed in white, and with pale black darkness forming around him the puppet Joe Dark laid his dagger down by his hip and stared right at his two foes.

"What a lovely gift you've given us Justek..." The Phoenix laid his hands down by his hips and slowly approached his old enemy with a massive smile on his face, "We will be sure to tear it wide open..."

**Forever a Puppet of Fate: Joe Dark**

The intensity of the Phoenix's flames dried out the ground to the point of crumbling it apart. He was fully intending to go at Joe Dark without holding anything back.

"_I shouldn't use too much power yet..." _Riku weighed his options and focused on going into Light Form for the ensuing battle, _"This should be enough to handle Joe Dark."_

But the first blow would go to the Phoenix. Breaking away from his approach with a bull-headed charge, the madman threw his right fist into the center of Joe Dark's face to the sound of their cracking bones.

Joe Dark staggered but save for some blood coming out of his nose looked fine. So the Phoenix tried tossing out an uppercut with his other arm. Joe Dark slipped to the right, left behind a powerless shade, and then lodged his dagger below the Phoenix's left wrist.

Joe Dark started going down but the Phoenix pulled his arm back at the same speed. The cut wound up being only as thick as the weapon itself and the spill of blood hardly worth the Phoenix's attention.

The Phoenix's eyes thrust wide open. They pulled their right hand back, digging their heels deep into the breaking ground. Riku sliced down with his katana and parted the two's fight with a wave of light.

He had the element of surprise against the Phoenix but targeted Joe Dark instead. He was prepared to raise his dagger to deflect Riku coming in and swinging his sword down. The dagger's small size made it easy for the boy to turn it back around and slice at Riku's katana a few more times before he could react back.

But Riku's katana was light as a feather, and thus he held the advantage in terms of length. The dagger would not reach him.

Riku pressed his feet against the ground and shoved forward from a burst of light. He braked almost immediately and this knocked Joe Dark towards the dust storm.

"_Dark King or not, I refuse to kill you. But...that doesn't mean this won't hurt."_ Riku pulled back his katana along the ground but felt a surge of power rising from the right and leaped back before a fireball ran him through.

Joe Dark disappeared behind the fireball's trail and wound up getting in front of it, using his dagger to slice open a dark rift.

The Phoenix marched through the split in the light and launched two more giant fireballs at Joe Dark. He curved their flight around the rift and they burnt through the ground. Joe Dark didn't move and was saved by the darkness flying out of the storm, its howling winds of isolation quietly reducing the flames to nothing.

Yet the Phoenix continued to march with a twisted smirk and fired even bigger fireballs, burning bright, empty crevices into the ground. The darkness kept the flames from breaching.

"_So what will you do now?" _Riku kept his sword in the same position and his eyes followed the Phoenix's free hand towards his pocket.

The Phoenix disappeared by stopping time and then reappeared behind Joe Dark and the darkness he ruled over. His sword was drawn in the midst of an upward stabbing motion for the Dark King's back.

Joe Dark spun around and a quick slice from his dagger repelled the threat of his foe's blade. The Phoenix aspired for blood to be spilled, and that thirst made him unrelenting in his attacks. From that failed move the Phoenix brought his blade high over his head and slashed it down with all his might.

Joe Dark retreated through the darkness and avoid the cleaving blow to the ground. The darkness then whipped around like a snake towards the Phoenix.

The Phoenix broke one hand away from his sword and whipped it back beside his neck. Lightning flourished violently along his fingertips and he roared with sadistic glee "Weak _and _pathetic AS ALWAYS!" before sending the lightning free.

Five sky-splitting bolts ripped through the darkness like it was paper. Three smashed the ground. One deliberately flew towards Riku, only to be redirected with a quick, careful sweep of his blade. The last struck Joe Dark in the stomach, burnt through his shirt, and seared the skin.

The Phoenix couldn't wait to leap at Joe Dark, grab him by the face, and smash him into dirt. He then let loose with a flurry of haymakers into his skull. Left and right the ground broke apart, the distance the damage covered growing larger with every punch.

"You never should have crawled out of that hole we buried you in! Maggots stay in the dirt where they belong!" Just when it sounded like the Phoenix was breaking Joe Dark's neck he planted his bright red glowing hand flat against his foe's face.

"But that's fine. Reducing you to ash will serve a greater purpose than anything you've ever managed."

Riku narrowed his gaze and swung his sword down. The sky opened up and sent a beam of hot light at the two. He "missed" Joe Dark and the Phoenix hopped off of him, flashing a knowing smirk at Riku. Not one to waste his energy, the Phoenix then raised his glowing hand and fired off a massive cone of searing heat.

Joe Dark slipped into a dark rift to escape and Riku cut down along the center for as long as his katana could persist. The heat traveled down to the handle.

Joe Dark popped out behind the Phoenix and stabbed his dagger directly into his right shoulder blade. The Phoenix bit his teeth down and lurched his head back, which in turn redirected his flames towards the sky.

Joe Dark managed to cut over to the opposite shoulder before he was made to retreat. The Phoenix had blood spewing out of his back but drenched himself it when he whipped around and tried turning his flames onto Joe Dark. The darkness emerged from the storm and cut off the flames before quickly wrapping itself around the Phoenix.

The darkness took on the form of a giant's arm and pulled him off the ground slowly. Joe Dark then eyed Riku and flew straight for him. Riku had his blade ready to defend himself but even so, Joe Dark shoved the dull edge of his weapon along his and came within an inch of Riku's right eye.

Riku flinched, his heart skipped a beat, and he pulled away momentarily to get his bearings. The normal Joe Dark wouldn't allow him a chance to breathe. This possessed puppet, however, was completely motionless for a few seconds before coming in for another attack.

Riku's muscle memory was used to fending off a relentless flurry of attacks from the Dark King. But now he was being precise and keeping up with both him and the Phoenix of Destruction. If this had been Joe Dark's personality from the start Riku may not even have come to be.

Riku raised and swung his sword down in the same fluid motion, and was caught by surprise when Joe Dark was made to catch the blade _inside_ of his palm. Blood oozed out but of course, the puppet wasn't allowed to feel pain. And this lapse in judgment on Riku's end gave Joe Dark the opening to stab his dagger straight up into Riku's arm pit.

It dug in two inches tip, twisted, and then was ripped out with a small waterfall of blood following suit. Riku stumbled a couple steps back and the grip on his blade was made uneven by the limping of his left arm. His nerves were threatening to be fried by all the pain that shot through them at that moment.

He had to clutch his blade tightly as Joe Dark tried to go for the opening in his chest. Riku twisted his body to the right and his blade connected with the bottom of his foe's dagger to divert its course. He then took a couple steps away and planted his right hand where the wound was. All he could do was nurse it with some light to stop the blood coming out. The pain, on the other hand, would prove to be a test of his mental fortitude.

Slow breathing. A focused gaze. The light continued to flow through Riku's body and feed into his katana. He turned around eye-to-eye with Joe Dark, who was but a couple steps away, and sliced his blade forward in the blink of an eye.

Joe Dark raised his dagger to block the slice but as the pressure kept being applied the light grew bigger, brighter, and wider and dragged him further into the eye of the storm.

Riku closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The world's woes disappeared from his mind as he swiftly glided along the air and carried the tip of his blade across the ground. Slowly, it would rise towards Joe Dark and take back the light released, using that energy to drag the Dark King off the planet.

Good ideas are sadly never worth exploring when the Phoenix of Destruction is the third-party to this melee a trois. Right as Riku got his blade to connect with the light, he felt some insane aggression radiating from behind and changed his plan on the fly.

He dispelled his blade and thrust his hands up to shove Joe Dark back while forcing a retreat of his own. He stood just out of range of a beam of flame capable of consuming an entire skyscraper whole. The blistering heat melted through the planet's surface for a couple miles ahead, and continued to trail off into space.

When the flames died out and Joe Dark was nowhere to be found, Riku immediately glared over his shoulder at the Phoenix floating in the air. His smoldering palms lowered to his waist, and with a twisted smirk he murmured in a failed attempt at sounding disappointed, "Oh...We _missed_."

Surviving against these two was bad enough, Riku didn't want to have to worry about keeping the planet together on top of that. Riku's eyes then darted to the right as Joe Dark emerged out of a dark rift and attempted to slice along the front of his neck.

There was no time to call his sword out. So instead Riku resorted to a short hop, twirling around to make a tight escape from Joe Dark's dagger. He then raised and dropped his right foot onto the back of Joe Dark's head to down him.

The Phoenix tried another fire blast. This time Riku was well-prepared and leaned his body forward with a wall of light serving as his aegis. The flames roared in his ears in their attempt to burn through. The hot winds churned and forced his wings back.

And to top it all off, he still wasn't free of Joe Dark's involvement in the fight. He was in the prime position to take his dagger and stab it down into Riku's right foot. But any effort on his end was felt and Riku dragged his foot back in the nick of time.

He then closed his eyes and leaped off of Joe Dark, pushing through the center of the flames as quick as light. By the time he reached the end, however, the Phoenix was nowhere to be found. He immediately spun around and watched the Phoenix dive out of the sky like a meteor with his blade held down, and his eyes stretching wide-open from the pressure combining with his glee.

He drove his blade into the direct center of Joe Dark's spine and the resulting crash ripped through the ground past the edges of the arena. Riku braced himself, avoided most of the shockwave, and only had to clench his teeth slightly.

The Phoenix stood and hauled Joe Dark out of the ground, the tip of his blade sticking out of his chest. He then forced the blade out by kicking Joe Dark in the back. Blood was leaking deep into his shirt on both sides but he effortlessly turned around and raised his dagger into the air.

The Phoenix dropped his sword and threw his fist out as quick as a bullet, breaking Joe Dark's shoulder and making the dagger fall from his hand. He then switched targets to the the Dark King's head and smashed his knuckles across his left cheek, then his right cheek.

The ground at Joe Dark's feet was outright annihilated by the strength of his enemy's blows. The Phoenix mixed in some fire to his punches and started melting the skin off Joe Dark's face. Only someone as twisted as the Phoenix of Destruction could express so much joy out of "playing" with its prey like a ragdoll.

"How does it feel to continue to be so worthless?!" But it would be the Phoenix's words that would burn the Dark King the most, "You've spent almost your entire life trying to get revenge on us! You threw away your dignity and your worthless self-respect to become a puppet of darkness!"

"And guess what?" The Phoenix said before his words and ghoulish smile twisted the metaphorical knife in deeper, "You were **right **about us."

The Phoenix's punches burnt down to the bone and dislodged a couple of Joe Dark's teeth from the jaw, "Every waking moment you spent hunting us down was justified all along! WE killed your family! WE endured your pathetic hunts and crying temper tantrums! And worst of all, the utterly, most absolutely splendid icing on this shit cake you call a life?"

The Phoenix pulled back and let Joe Dark's detached flesh drape from his chin as he towered over him, consumed in crimson fire.

"Is that you could have been the Elemental Overlord if it wasn't for us! But God was soooo disappointed in a worthless shitstain like you, that he made _**me**_!" The Phoenix then burrowed his burning hand into Joe Dark's neck and burnt down to the bone in seconds, "And all you can do about it is die once more...Pitiful maggot!"

Riku had had enough of the Phoenix's ranting and raving. The monster was so consumed in it that it left him vulnerable at long last. With his greatest weakness exposed, one slice would decide it all.

Yet as Riku gripped his blade, his skin suddenly felt cold and bumpy. The storms went calm. The sky split open above them. The stars in space blinked out...For the darkness, began to _crawl_.

The planet quivered and the phenomenon was centered onto Joe Dark. The rage coming from his broken body was so immense that it disabled Riku's ability to feel fear and left him paralyzed in the air. Space bled its droplets of darkness onto Joe Dark's body and filled in the gaps of lost flesh and bone.

The moment his throat had returned, Joe Dark expressed his emotions in a nasally, raspy voice, "Whi...ter..."

The Phoenix's eyes lost a bit of their luster but that was compensated by his growing smile. Joe Dark snagged him by the wrist and started to bend it out of place as he pulled it away.

The darkness that enveloped his body hardened into a rotting black suit of kingly armor. A degraded skull with horned tusks bonded to each shoulder, and chains shackled down his chest and abdomen. When Joe Dark raised his head following his unexpected transformation, his hollow gaze had been flooded with red light.

"I...WILL FINALLY...KILL YOOOOOUU!" His true voice ripped through his throat and he grabbed the Phoenix by the face to start shoving his whole body down. Combine that with the iron vice applied to his wrist, and the Phoenix found his whole arm twisted out of alignment in a moment's notice.

Once Joe Dark had his mortal foe on the ground he thrust his hands down and bombarded him across the ground with a string of dark energy orbs. Any follow-ups were prevented by Joe Dark being forced to grab the sides of his head and flailing around wildly.

"GET...OUT OF...MY HEAD...!" He screamed. Justek fought to keep his puppet under control, but that much rage was clearly beyond the man's area of expertise. The battle of the minds was ripping into Joe Dark's power, allowing him to draw upon only half of it.

Though the battle had escalated beyond what Riku was expecting, this was fine.

"_At the very least, I shouldn't have to use my strongest form..." _But an upgraded was indeed necessary for survival now. After the shock to his system, Riku closed his eyes and focused on reaching his needed calm.

There was plenty of darkness to assist in his transformation into Chaos Form. By the time he had finished transforming, the Phoenix of Destruction had pulled himself up from ten feet under the ground and had blood trickling down the side of his face.

It was a long shot, but Riku glanced at his other enemy and remarked, "Temporary truce until we stop Joe Dark?"

It was no surprise when the Phoenix of Destruction cracked a nasty smile and lashed back in glee, "Butt out of this! You...are lower than the lowest of lows!"

Riku smirked slightly and thought to himself, _"Good. Get agitated. Get reckless. I want to see your full power..."_

He would play the role of spectator for a bit since, barring anymore of Justek's interventions, Joe Dark stood no chance of harming him. And besides, at the moment, he was the last thing on the Dark King's mind.

The dust storms of Venus twisted around this chaotic location and towered out into the depths of space, carried by the hands of darkness born from the murky depths. The immense power of Dark King was impressive enough as is, and would once again stand in the Phoenix of Destruction's way.

"This tired old form? Have you learned no tricks since our last encounter?!" The Phoenix would find himself under the titanic girth of a shadowy claw for that ill-timed boast of his.

The Phoenix pressed his hands up under the crushing palm and dragged himself back out into the open one step at a time...Where Joe Dark was waiting with darkness gathered at his palm.

The Phoenix warped to the left of the Dark King as a massive cone of darkness swept that part of the planet's surface clean. He then threw his hardest punches into the side of his armor and knocked him a couple inches back as he turned to face him.

The veins on Joe Dark's face started to pop out as he grit his teeth into a meaty scowl and slashed his right hand out. Blood spilled from the Phoenix's gut onto his legs thanks to the long, thin sword with a bone-y hilt now in the Dark King's grasp.

The Phoenix applied his hands to Joe Dark's chest and pounded him with blast of high heat to melt his armor right off. He barely succeeded in turning the armor even the darkest shade of red after a few of those blasts.

Yet without a care in the world the Phoenix charged at the Dark King head-on and dragged his red knuckles down the length of his chest. A vibration rippled out of his tearing skin and cracked the armor right down the middle.

Joe Dark went for a retaliatory slice only for his target to vanish from sight. With the Gaia Temporis Alex could have gone anywhere. Riku remained on guard, anticipating a cheap shot thrown his way.

But to his surprise Alex simply reappeared in front of Joe Dark with his hands tucked into his pockets and his head twisted out to the right.

"We, on the other hand, have learned plenty of tricks." He said as a taunt to a foe that could only half react to what he heard.

Joe Dark tightly grabbed his blade in one hand and lashed it out to the right. A twister of darkness ripped out of the walls and carried the Phoenix off towards the storm.

"Cute..." He remarked as he grabbed onto the Gaia Temporis and forced dozens of warps into existence around the Dark King, releasing titanic beams of flames from their statis to converge upon his location.

The mass of heat ruined his ability to concentrate on the darkness and allowed the Phoenix to break free. But not for long. Joe Dark stretched his hand free of the flames and squeezed it into a fist. The darkness ripped free of the storm in the form of a claw with thin, jagged fingers and snatched the Phoenix up to drag him back in.

Joe Dark marched out of the flames with his armor looking a little melted and embers resting in his hair. He collapsed darkness before his palm in a second then launched an energy orb into his foe's body. The air shattered behind the Phoenix upon impact.

"DIE! DIE!" Joe Dark's rage echoed in his voice as he continued to hammer his enemy with darkness.

The Phoenix relished in the pain that his body endured and as he suddenly burst into rapturous laughter his body burst into flames that burned through the darkness that bound him. His form little more than a shadow in the crimson blaze, the Phoenix thrust his hands out and cut through one of Joe Dark's attacks with an arrow of flame.

The arrow flew down into Joe Dark's chest and breached the crack in his armor. Then it dragged him off his feet and pinned him straight into the ground. Joe Dark's own body erupted with darkness to disperse the flames and he rose back upright.

...Only to be brought closer to the ground when the Phoenix dove and drove his fist on top of the Dark King's skull. The visceral weight of their clash resounded through the air, and Joe Dark's feet were wedged into the cracks of the broken ground.

The Phoenix attempted to grab his neck. Joe Dark stabbed his sword up through his wrist. Yet the Phoenix kept going even though the blade tore deeper along his arm. Riku watched as the ground broke down to microscopic pieces and flew into the Phoenix's body.

The planet was feeding him. Nourishing him. Making him whole every time he was broken. And the darkness did the same for Joe Dark.

These two were truly monsters made for each other. They could wage their war of hate and revenge for all of eternity would their bodies permit it. There was so much quaking, darkness and blood mixed within their cataclysmic clash that Riku could no longer make out who was who.

Their physical forms were twisted up in a mesh of dried black blood and fresh red taint. And were Riku not standing by to keep things in check, Venus would have been broken long ago.

It was frightening to think that the Phoenix of Destruction could stand toe-to-toe with the Dark King like this. But...it only stood to reason that this would be how it'd go. The power of the Elemental Overlord had festered within the Phoenix for so long that he was no longer the same as he was all those years ago. While Joe Dark had spent most of his life stewing in the hate of his enemy, never once finding a moment's rest to improve his power.

Yet, there was still something that bothered Riku about this clash of devils...

"_Professor. Tell me more about Alex Whiter." _

"_Oh hum diddly dum...My memory isn't what it used to be. What exactly do you wish to know?"_

"_Is there any powers he has that I should be aware of?" _

"_Powers? Well that's a silly humdinger of a question my boy. Your powers are the same after all!"_

"_Are you __**sure**__ about that?"_

"_Well, hmmm...There was __**something**__ that separated Alex from you and Mew. He could combine the power of the seven main elements into what he called the 'Phoenix Form'."_

"_Phoenix Form?"_

"_That's what the Elemental Overlord called it. I never got to see the form in action myself, but it IS what allowed Alex to triumph over Joe Dark years ago."_

Returning focus to the present day, Riku squinted at the chaotic brawl and finally realized what had been bugging him, _"Alex hasn't even tried to transform."_

Not against his brother. Not against Solaris. Not even against Joe Dark. Contrary to his title, the Phoenix of Destruction seemed to be fighting with clipped wings this whole time.

"Or maybe...he **can't **transform." Was an alternative idea that came to Riku's mind. But before he could further pursue that train of thought, a loud clap thundered across the planet.

He looked down at the fight, if it could even be called that, and watched as dozens of molten stones fell to the ground. The darkness binding the storm to their location began to disappear, and the heavy winds would soon return to making this planet inhospitable.

The final blow was struck, not unsurprisingly, but the Phoenix of Destruction. Joe Dark's head was snapped back as his body fell to the ground in defeat. His armor was broken, his body was bloody, but more importantly, the hollow look in his eyes were gone.

The Phoenix had beaten the mind-control out of him, but that had always been such a minor concern for him. The Phoenix panted with the vapors of madness spewing from his blood soaked mouth. The blood was sucked back into his skin, the unnatural sound it made making Riku sick to his stomach.

"No. YOU...can die..." The Phoenix raised one hand over his head and drew his blade downward over Joe Dark's head.

Riku wasted no time in flying down and blocking the blade by crossing his weapons in their path. The Phoenix looked surprised and even muttered "Oh right, you..." as he retreated from Riku slashing his weapons out at his gut.

The Phoenix landed but a few feet away and looked like he was having trouble standing. He stood with his side pointed at Riku and his arms and head hung like a zombie. With a lucid gaze he waited for Riku to speak up.

Calmly drawing his weapons to his sides, Riku remarked in a blunt tone of voice, "I think its time I ended this now, you monster."

"You really need to learn your place scum...But as much as we'd like to teach you..." The Phoenix cocked a grin and Riku's hand twitched on the handle of his blades, "We have bigger fish to fry now."

Alex reached down into his pocket and essentially made a clean getaway with the Gaia Temporis. Riku grimaced, but did not consider this a failure.

"_You can't run away much longer destroyer...At last, I know how to put you down for good." _Riku closed his eyes, stood upright, and dispelled his form to preserve energy.

He then glanced down at Joe Dark. He was breathing, just barely somehow, but if left to his own devices the hot winds of Venus would tear him to shreds.

"...You're neither my friend nor my enemy Joe Dark..." Riku extended his hand down and gave the Dark King a bit of protection via a barrier of wind, "But you don't deserve to die like this."

He then looked straight ahead, curled his hand into a fist, and rocketed off into space. He knew his destination. He knew who his enemies were. All he could hope was that he could make it in time before his brother is targeted by either one of them...

_But little did he know..._

"...Urrgghh..." Joe Dark grumbled to life, as his right pinky curled along the ground and into his palm along with the rest of his fingers...

_He hadn't seen the last of the new Dark King..._

_Next Time: Undying Empire_


	20. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19: The Emperor's Edict**

It had been little over an hour since Kairi and Mew had parted from the others back at the barrier. So much distance had been covered in that time and yet, it didn't feel that way. Kairi would chalk that up to an obvious lack of wind resistance in space.

It had also been a relatively quiet journey too. Normally Mew would be a lot more chatty during this time but he had barely spoken a word since they left. Kairi assumed that perhaps this was one of those rare times where he took the situation seriously...But that grin on his face told her otherwise.

They were millions of miles away from home. Their return wasn't guaranteed. Practically the only thing that was was their encounter with the monster known as Justek. The man's voice had been stuck in the back of Kairi's mind ever since they left the barrier.

He had made an effort to cover up the tone of his voice for some odd reason, and he didn't even bother to show his face. "Why?" Kairi had to ask, as the man's attempt at being enigmatic seemed as pointless as pointless could get.

She wanted to hear Mew's thoughts on the man, even knowing that he'd keep it simple. But as she turned her head and opened her mouth his voice interrupted in record time.

"Finally! There it is!" He shouted as he flung a pointer finger dead ahead.

At long last they were closing in on their destination: The Sun. A magnificent, utterly titanic ball of heat and flame that could reduce even the largest planet in the Solar System to dust on contact. The fact that the two of them weren't flooded with sweat meant that, at the very least, Justek had kept to his word.

And yet despite the harsh drop in temperatures the sun still shone as brightly as expected. There was beauty to be found in its otherworldly presence. Drawn in, her eyes as wide as dish plates, Kairi found herself understanding why children would look up at the sun in the sky despite being warned not to.

But even if the sun was safe to approach there was absolutely, positively no way that Justek was expecting them to meet on the star's surface. And Mew, not surprisingly, agreed.

"Ok, there's gotta be a ship around here somewhere." He proposed as the two of them took a break a few thousand miles away from the sun.

While Mew squinted his eyes and curled his hands around them like makeshift binoculars, Kairi closed her eyes and tried using her aura to sense out anything. But the sun's own aura was overwhelming, like she had put her eyeballs directly on top of a hot stove.

So she quickly opened her eyes in recoil. Fortunately, Mew was back upright and remarked in triumph, "Found it!"

He waved his finger out towards the center of the sun. With somewhat watery eyes Kairi managed to pick out a "small" white ship with a bulbous shape floating around there.

Mew clutched his fist before his chest and exclaimed through a grin, "Alright Justek, here we come!"

And then he was off, just like that. One sigh later and Kairi kept up with him, her heartbeat getting louder as they got closer to the ship. Upon further inspection the outside of the ship had a weird, wavy texture to it. Moving closer caused the texture to move, sort of like an optical illusion. It was pretty hard to make out the large jet engines on the back because of this, and equally troublesome to find the ship's one and only door somewhere between them.

Kairi had a short dizzy spell upon landing on the short ledge connected to the door. Mew was right there to help prop her up when she felt ready to fall down.

"You ok?" He asked, bending forward to look her in the eyes.

"Uhhh, yeah?" Kairi quietly replied as she steadied herself upright. Mew then whipped his hand around and then laid the palm upright with a nice gold and red apple on top of it.

"I know its not much but...You really should eat something." He said while wearing his normal smile.

Kairi looked at the apple and then slowly took it out of his hands, cupping it before her chest.

"_I...I haven't eaten anything all day..." _She closed her eyes and sighed internally. A lot had happened today, and it all started when she went out with Mew to eat.

"Thanks Mew." She whispered before taking a bite out of the fresh, moist fruit. An explosion of nutrition attacked her body and quickly helped reinvigorate any senses dulled by hunger. She felt, just for a moment, that she was floating off the ground.

When the sensation was gone so too was Mew. She quickly looked to the left and saw him knocking on the door like they had been invited to a neighbor's house. She fluttered her eyelashes and then walked up beside him, continuing to indulge in the apple.

"Hey Justek! We're here like ya wanted, so open up!"

With all the times Mew has carelessly prodded his enemies it was a wonder he was still alive. After waiting by for a few seconds the double-sided doors twisted together and contracted into the walls like they were made of muscle.

The slanted ground at their toes rippled upward and formed a short set of stairs into the ship. Rainbow colored lines then pulsated along the pearl white walls.

"Oooh. Fancy!" Mew threw out a quick whistle, then proceeded up the stairs. After finishing her apple, Kairi tossed the core into space and followed him up.

"_This is it...Justek's waiting for us inside." _But where he was exactly, remained to be seen. For now the two stopped at the top of the steps and watched as the multicolored lines curved around the sides of the present room.

They went into and etched out the curved shape of a pair of doors, one to the left, the other on the right. The doors popped out a few inches from the wall and let out a decompressing hiss. Kairi then laid a hand atop her chest and took in a deep breath through her mouth.

Much to her surprise, the air was clean and breathable. But that was a minor relief given the choice presented to them now.

"Two doors...I wonder which one we're supposed to take?" She murmured aloud.

"_The answer is...Both!" _A static filled screen flashed on between the two doors and made Kairi's heart skip a beat. She rested her hand on her still beating chest, clutched it into a fist, then glared angrily at the screen.

"Justek..." She growled in familiarity towards her foe.

"_Welcome to my ship, the Ark of Nothing." _

"Odd name, but I kinda dig it." Mew said, nodding as he flicked a hand up from his arms crossed before his chest.

"_I'm certain you planned to meet me together...So it is with some regret that I must temporarily put a damper on that." _

"What do you mean?" Kairi asked.

"_Two doors, and two of you. I would hate to have all this interior work go to waste so...I am going to be splitting you two up." _

The two doors opened the same as the entrance did and the screen glided over to the left, and then to the right as Justek spoke of them, _"Kairi, you will go through the left door, while Mew will go into the right one. Any objections?"_

"You bet!" Kairi stomped a couple steps forward and started wagging a finger at the screen, "We know this is a trap! So you can-"

Mew put a hand over her mouth and after a bit of canned laughter said, "Nope! No objections here!"

Kairi grabbed onto his hand and pulled it down while blurting out, "Mew!"

He turned around and whispered under his breath, "Come on Kairi he invited us into his home, don't be rude."

She clutched her hand tightly around his wrist and he feigned some gasps of pain with a smile. She then let go of his hand and said to him quietly, "We can't split up now Mew...He'll pick us off one by one."

"If that was his plan he would've picked me or Alex off waaaaay before we got to his ship." Begrudgingly, she had to admit that there was some truth to what he was saying. But it wasn't enough. It was just too...optimistic at this juncture. Even for him.

Mew pulled back, shook his head, and raised his hands flat out beside it. Offering a mischievous smirk he said in a played up tone of voice, "Oooor maybe you're right. If we split up this could be the last time we see each other!"

He then suddenly leaned his left cheek in, gave it a couple taps, and said to her, "Soooo, maybe you oughta give me a kiss on the cheek. Y'know, for luck?"

"Eeep!" Kairi felt her heart retract into her chest and all the blood rushing to her face. She stared blankly at Mew as he pulled back with a heart chuckle.

"Just kidding!" He had the nerve to say.

"We'll meet up again wherever Justek wants us to be. Its a promise!" Mew proclaimed with his usual confidence.

And Kairi, still staggering from Mew's sudden advance, bobbed her head and stuttered, "Y-Yeah...Of...of course..."

"_Then it is settled. I look forward to meeting you both face-to-face. Along with our missing two, of course." _And with that, the screen shut off. Mew quickly started walking towards his door, and without a conscious effort on her part Kairi walked over to hers.

They turned to look at each other one more time. Mew smiled big, but Kairi could barely pull her lips up. After he waved her off the two went through their respective doors and they quickly sealed themselves up tight within the wall.

The weight of Kairi's stress at that moment came out as one deep, heavy breath as her body hung towards the ground. She got back up quick, placing a hand on her still fluttering heart. She then squeezed it into a fist and muttered, "S-Stupid Mew and his stupid...Gah!"

It wasn't so much that he did that but rather...A part of her wanted to kiss him back, and she barely had more than a second to even try it.

"...Grrr..." Kairi slumped her back up against the wall behind her for a moment and let out her frustrations where no one but her would hear them. And when that was over with she took her fists by her hips and stared down the hallway ahead.

She marched forward through the tight corridor and quickly rounded up a spiral pathway leading further into the ship. It was a couple tiers tall and it took longer for the path to curve the higher she got. After a solid ten minutes of walking however, Kairi found herself at a dead end.

Before she could look around, the multicolored lines from before etched out another door to her left and opened the way to a wide-open room. Kairi's body quivered in response.

"Is this ship alive? Ughh, creepy..." After whispering that to herself she started peering around the edge of the door, expecting to find one of her enemies lying in wait. Solaris and Lunis were still alive, Joe Dark was under Justek's control, and even the man himself could've been in there. She was ready and willing to fight any one of them.

But that's not what she got.

A familiar green cape, attached to a tall, imposing man with black hair. His mechanical body, alit by the sun's flames beaming through the wide view window he stood before. A ghost. A phantom. Or a dead man walking...He was, and always shall be, the embodiment of all of Kairi's pain and suffering.

With a creak of his mechanical bones the man turned with shoulder pointed at the door, and his clean if not rugged face was not something that could easily be replicated. Nor could the baritones of his condescending voice.

"So, you have come at last..._daughter_." The man's formalities were betrayed by the short, wicked smile that creased along his lips.

Kairi's heart plummeted to her stomach like a hard stone. In its place, a fire of rage, confusion and hatred burned in her chest. Her vision stiffened towards where the man stood. Her hand bent the metal on the left side of the door. Her grit gnashed together, grinding the enamel as her body shook.

It was _impossible_. It was unfair. But he **was** alive. There was no room for deception at this juncture. Without hesitation Kairi slammed down on the Neo Drive and a pair of rainbow colored butterfly wings exploded out of her back, barely getting the chance to fully form as she charged the man down and screamed his name at the top of her lungs.

"GRAAAAAAVITTTUUUUSSS!"

The man closed his eyes with a wily smirk and snapped his fingers by his hip. Before Kairi could draw a sword of aura from her wrist a figure rushed between her and the man she despised. Kairi's rage turned cold as a pale gasp flung forth from her throat and her feet dug down into the floor. She pulled back, dodging the swing of a battered katana worth of being wielded only by one...

Gabriel. Clad in his samurai armor the man stood as Gravitus' vanguard and clutched his katana calmly before his waist. Kairi bit her lower lip and looked into his eyes. They were hollow, just like Joe Dark's.

"No...W-Why?" She found herself asking, with Gravitus happily providing an answer.

"I requested Justek to allow me to use Gabriel as a puppet in exchange for providing him the use of the fledgling Dark King as his puppet," Gravitus stepped a little to the left of Gabriel and pointed one of his jagged fingers at Kairi, "The Neo Drive made you stronger daughter...But your heart is prone to weakness, just like your mother's."

Kairi grit her teeth, punched the ground, then stood upright and proclaimed, "How are you still alive?!"

"What I am. What I represent...is eternal," Gravitus curled his fist and shook his head in disappointment, "You cannot stand against that with such a flimsy grasp on the power you wield."

"You continued to press forward with your limited resolve...And so it brought you back to me."

The man's words ground away at Kairi's patience but Gabriel's presence kept her from making any hasty moves. As much as it sucked to have to hear him speak, Gravitus had some more things to answer for. Such as...

"_Why _are you here?!" She exclaimed.

"This Ark is where all whom are connected to the past were fated to meet...To decide the future of the entire universe. And my interests align with Justek's...As they have ever since our first meeting two-thousand years ago."

"You've been allied with Justek...this whole time?" Things were slowly registering in Kairi's head as she spoke those words, and it only served as fuel for her anger at the man.

"Then everything you said about 'peace' for everyone was all just a big fat lie wasn't it?! You've been weakening entire worlds to make it easier for Justek to destroy everything!"

"Naive as always, daughter," Gravitus quickly responded, "How easily you have bought into your mother's lies."

"I..." Kairi's tongue stayed still as not even all the rage in her heart could allow her to speak back at Gravitus now.

"What is the phrase humans love to use? 'History is written by the winners'? Remind me again...**Who **won against Justek and the Dark King in the past? Ah, that's right..." Gravitus slowly bobbed his head as he delivered that answer with a firm stance, "It was the original Elemental Overlord...AND your mother."

He pointed his finger firmly at Kairi and inched a little more out from behind Gabriel, "Auris made the tablets prophesying the Overlord's rebirth in Alex Whiter and describing how to free Justek from his prison. Needless to say, calling him the 'end of everything' is a great exaggeration."

"I don't have any reason to believe anything you say!" Kairi exclaimed.

"Then why bother asking me these questions?" Gravitus responded with a wry chuckle then waved the back of his right hand out from his face, "I hardly care what you think now. I was through trying to turn you to my side the moment you tried to kill me."

"My resolve and my purpose have not changed. I still seek peace for all and the end of 'heroes' and 'villains'...My plans to achieve those ends have merely been rearranged. Not stopped."

"And you're crazy enough to think that Justek will help you?!" Kairi lashed out.

"Our relationship has been built around mutual cooperation. I worked to free him from his cage, and he would occasionally provide me with hints on how to proceed with reshaping the universe into a paradise of peace. I helped reclaim his ship, and in exchange provided his children with directions to Sancturia."

"Y-You what?" Kairi's eyes went wide. Memories of fire sweeping through the city flashed before her eyes, as did the screams of pain from her people.

"You...you sold us out to..." Bitterly, her voice started out as barely a whisper, before she lashed her arms out and screamed, "Hundreds of Aurians died! They were **your** people and you let them be slaughtered like lambs! W-Why?! WHY WOULD YOU DO SUCH A THING?!"

"To demonstrate a point," Gravitus said without so much as flinching, "They could barely stand up against a small battalion of Vortexians. If an armada of alien battleships were to target Sancturia, how would they survive?"

"I would be there to fight for them!" Kairi proclaimed.

"Would you now? Just like how you were there for them today?" His straight and narrow response struck Kairi silent, "No. Because you were busy lying on the couch in the home of the man you wish to bed."

"Peace keeping knows no such thing as rest. You must always be ready to fight. You must always be there TO fight. It is this limited view of yours that makes you still unworthy of the Neo Drive's power, daughter."

Kairi laid her hand over her bracelet then clutched her fingers down softly as Gravitus continued to hammer his point home, "And so I shall take it from you. Even if I must break you to do so."

Kairi's hand firmed up around the bracelet and she raised her head defiantly towards the man she despised to say, "Your peace is a sham Gravitus! No one will ever accept a paradise that cost lives to achieve!"

"They will come to see things my way...In time. I am a **very** patient man." Gravitus raised his right hand and with a loud snap of his fingers drew Gabriel back in front of him and forced the glint of his katana into Kairi's eyes.

"Tch...!" Kairi grunted as her hand quivered and failed to rise.

"You will not touch me this time, daughter. I not only control Gabriel's body, but also his strength...I can make his defenses paper thin, so if you attempt to attack me through him the shock will be so great that it'll kill him."

"But do not think of lowering your own power..." Gravitus raised his right hand and lightly tapped the Space Drive hidden within. As his power skyrocketed he stretched out a grin and chuckled, "You do not stand a chance against me otherwise."

"Bastard!" Kairi barked out as she edged back slightly and tried to think of a plan around this predicament.

"Hahaha..." Gravitus slowly laughed as he raised his hand up and summoned a pair of black and blue aura spheres to his sides, "That's a good girl..."

He thrust the spheres around Gabriel and they warped the air as they traveled. Kairi swung her right arm down and cut through one of the spheres with an aura blade while gliding back to give her time to turn and slice through the other one.

Gravitus then slammed his open hand down and a hammer of aura formed and dropped on top of her. Kairi threw her hands up to catch up but the pressure quickly grew strong enough to make her knees bend.

Kairi closed her eyes for a moment then thrust them open with the symbol of Uranus' Drive in her pupils. Her aura flashed against Gravitus' attack and froze it all in solid ice. She quickly flew out from underneath and tried to arch her flight around Gabriel. The samurai was forced in her way and swung her sword down at her head.

Kairi rolled to the left, where Gravitus struck her with a compressed blast of aura. The gravity dragged Kairi to the ground and sent her rolling all the way to the back of the room, where her shoulder blades rammed against the wall.

Kairi put her hands down before she landed on her stomach and used them to flip back onto her feet. Her breathing was a little heavier. She took a deep swallow of saliva, watching as Gabriel slowly made his way front-and-center with Gravitus' body.

"You do not have what it takes to make the tough calls. All you'd have to do is remove this unimportant relic from the equation to fight me on even terms..." Gabriel taunted her with what he held as a simple moral quandary.

"_Never_." Kairi spat back in his face. Gravitus closed his eyes and shrugged.

"So be it..." He then pulled his right arm out to his side and attached part of his aura to the wall. It spread all the way around to the side of the door and peeled back the strange material holding it together to reveal a bunch of metal pipes and electronic circuits underneath.

He ripped many of them out with no harm to the massive ship, turning them into a twister of destruction aimed straight at Kairi. In this confined space not even the Neo Drive's agility could help her fly away for very long. She made a loop around the edge of the room only to run into where the storm of metal began.

The end of it rammed her in the back, shoving her into the brunt of the storm. The bits of metal chipped away at her body like a flurry of tiny fists, doing overall little harm to her skin but causing some doubt to form in her head.

Gravitus expertly pushed the metal he called upon back into place in the wall and closed it shut. He then squeezed his hand towards Kairi as she lied on the ground, and lifted her up with her gravity powers.

He turned her arms around and forced her elbows into her hips, continuing to twist them in hopes of breaking her arms. As the strain made her bones crack, Kairi grit her teeth and thrust her eyes open to use Gravitus' own Drive to break free.

She landed on the ground and stared straight at the man, only for Gabriel to get between them once more. The ferocity in her eyes dulled to that of a kitten's. She tried to call out to Gabriel in vain, "Wake up Gabriel! You can't let Justek control you like this!"

"It is futile. Justek's control is absolute against the weak minded," Gravitus commented, "But this is the fate this man deserves for his undying devotion to the Ten Sages."

"Grrr...!" Kairi swung her arms out and spread her wings. Hundreds of needles fired from them and dove at Gravitus from above. Gabriel leaped into the center of them and Gravitus used his powers to try and condense the needles onto his location.

Kairi dispelled the needles right away looking freaked out in the process. Gravitus took the gravity energy he already had and flung it straight down at her, collapsing it into a large sphere.

Kairi crossed her arms before her chest and tried to quickly pull out another Drive power to counteract the attack. She was too late. The sphere pressed against her arms and shrunk down to a sliver, forcing the hefty amounts of gravity into her body.

When it was fully gone she slammed back into the wall faster than she could blink. Her eyes were forced wide open and she dropped back to the ground on her knees. She shook down to her toes as she tried to stand. Her body wobbled to the sides as she pointed her gaze at Gravitus and bit her teeth down defiantly.

"The difference in strength between us is meaningless. I will break you down for as long as it takes, while Justek deals with that stubborn pest Mew..."

Kairi's eyes flared open and she flew straight at Gravitus. Gabriel took a swing down in her path but she slid around it and thrust her hands out before her chest. She fired a blast of concentrated aura as Gravitus whipped his hand down and summoned a barrier around his body to stand against.

Gabriel was slowly maneuvered into position to intercept it. Kairi tried to keep the energy going as long as possible to try and break through Gravitus' defenses. But it was not worth the cost. She shut her beam off and hung her arms to her waist. And Gravitus made her pay the price by throwing his barrier like a projectile into her body.

The barrier popped and knocked her clean onto her back. Not content with one, Gravitus fired a second barrier and Kairi rolled out of its way while scrambling to her feet.

She quickly used Neptune's Drive to prepare for Gravitus next attack. As he fired it off he smirked and remarked, "Are you sure that's wise?"

Gabriel walked in front of him again. Kairi's eyes trembled and she quickly shifted to Uranus' Drive to freeze the energy solid.

"Hmph..." Gravitus squeezed his hand down and made the ice block fall towards Kairi, forcing her to use one of Mercury's Drives to melt it down with heat.

Kairi spread her wings to disperse the ensuing fog and then stared Gravitus down some more. Gravitus poked his head out from behind Gabriel and wore that utterly deplorable smile with pride.

"I will fight you as long as it takes Gravitus...! And I WILL kill you without hurting Gabriel!"

"Why must you insist on making things so difficult for yourself?" Gravitus shook his head slowly as he continued launching gravity spheres around Gabriel to keep Kairi on her toes.

"Gabriel would only be grateful if you ended his sinful existence. He hid the truth from you, just like your mother did. And yet you would save him? Why? What worth is there in a liar and a traitor?"

Kairi held up her defenses against a few of Gravitus' attacks and continued digging her heels into the ground as each impact forced them off.

"_Gabriel..." _She bit her teeth and found her back to the wall with Gravitus' assault refusing to cease, _"When I found out you lied to me and Shina, I was so mad I couldn't think straight. I wanted to wring your neck...I wanted you to die..." _

Kairi winced her eyes shut as Gravitus doubled down on his assault. But her thoughts remained calm against the tide of pain that washed over her body, _"I...I still don't understand what drove you to be the way you are today, but..." _

She saw him sitting at the table with her and Shina when they were little. She recalled riding on his shoulders, feeling scared, yet his soothing voice telling her it'd be ok as long as he was there. He had stood by her side and helped teach her how to fight. He was there for her, for Shina, and even for her mother. And no doubt, he'd been there for all of Auris' other children throughout the years.

His duty and loyalty never made him distant or cold. His actions were full of warmth, and his heart was as big as his body. He was a better man than Gravitus could ever hope to be, without a doubt.

"..." Kairi took in a deep breath, then suddenly thrust her eyes open, using Gravitus' power to force all the attacks coming her way to stop in place.

"You don't get to judge other people's worth Gravitus! You think of everyone as tools to use!" Kairi summoned an aura blade off of each wrist then slashed them out with all her might to cut down all the gathered spheres, clearing the way between her and Gravitus.

"Gabriel is worth everything to me! He's been there through thick and thin for our family while you couldn't even be assed to show up and say hello! Because you're cruel, and your heart was never there even before you sold your humanity for power!"

Kairi hunched over, bending her knees towards the ground as she prepared to lunge straight at Gravitus regardless of what stood in her way.

"But it is **because **I've made these sacrifices that the universe shall be saved. Who would ever want a misguided child to be their savior?"

"What matters to me right now is the here and now Gravitus! You're my enemy..." Kairi felt her heart clench against her chest as she rocketed straight ahead and exclaimed at the top of her lungs, "AND I WON'T LET YOU HURT MY FATHER ANYMORE!"

She swung her right arm behind her head and created a blade three times as wide as her body to thrust straight ahead. She curved her flight slightly to the left to try and get around Gabriel, but Gravitus simply moved him aside with a brush of his hand.

"You just don't get it. There is no getting around this. It is either his life, or both of-"

"_YOU'RE WRONG!" _Kairi silenced the rest of Gravitus' words as the tip of her blade reached the front of Gabriel's neck...And began to split in half to curve around it.

Gravitus' eyes began to widen and he slowly raised his hand to try and correct this. But his attempt to force Gabriel's neck into the blade failed for one reason...

Reflected in Kairi's eyes was the symbol of Gabriel's Drive. As the samurai had described to Mew, the Nature nullifies attacks stemming from mother nature. And as that would imply, the Drive itself has the power of nature within it. Which means as long as even a bit of Gabriel's aura is up, his Drive would keep him from getting cut.

Gravitus seemed to have pieced that together too little too late. The halves of Kairi's blade made a sharp convergence behind Gabriel's neck and thrust itself straight into Gravitus' own. With a pale gasp of shock the blade had penetrated out the back of his neck and slammed his whole body into the window.

His head then rolled off the blade and onto the ground, while the rest of his body collapsed like an empty suit of armor.

"I...I cannot believe it..." Gravitus whispered.

Kairi withdrew her blade and looked straight at Gabriel. The man's mouth twitched to let out a grumble, and then the color in his eyes returned. His eyelids shut, and he began to faint forward. Kairi caught him under his arms and propped her chin onto his left shoulder. He was breathing. Tired, but alive.

"...Thank god..." She whispered as she wrapped her arms around his chest and held him tight, a single tear dripping down onto his armor.

"...This changes _nothing_..." Gravitus, bitter and defiant to the last breath, looked so small from Kairi's point of view that he was like an ant. A fitting perspective for such a lowly creature.

"You cannot live your life hoping everything to go the way you want it. The universe **demands** compromise. And if you continue to think this way, then Justek is where your journey ends."

Kairi put Gabriel over her shoulders and shook her head, "You're wrong. We will make it through this. And if Sancturia comes under attack again, I **will** be there to defend them."

She turned her back to Gravitus and looked past the door. Another door opened up where there was originally a dead end, showing the way forward into the Ark.

After she took just a couple steps forward Gravitus yelled at her, "Have you learned nothing?! Kill me now or I shall return for the Neo Drive again and again and again!"

Kairi didn't even bother giving him a look. He wasn't worth the waste of energy.

"You have no Neo Drive. You have no body. And soon you won't even have your empire of lies. Rot here alone Gravitus...I have bigger fish to fry." And then she went out the door, which, without using the Neo Drive anymore, made lugging Gabriel around a bit of a chore.

When Kairi had left his sight Gravitus' eyes were frozen in a glare of disbelief. He then creased out a smile and chuckled to himself, "How cruel of her...I suppose she inherited something from me after all."

A bit of black aura surrounded his head and caused it to rise back up on top of his armor. He then moved his hands up to hold it in place while the skin of his neck reattached itself into the metal.

He then stood up, grunting out in exertion. He had to use the rim of the window for support, while his other hand rested before his chest. He felt something warm there, a sensation that he hadn't experienced since exchanging flesh for machine.

"What is this odd feeling in my chest? I wonder. Could it be...a feeling of pride in my daughter?" With a brief, dry fit of laughter Gravitus shook his head and found the strength to stand all the way up.

He then brushed his hand up and down his chest and looked to the path forward, "Hmmm...The final hour is drawing close. Perhaps it is time I join up with Justek and finish the plan..."

_Next Time: The Forgotten One_


	21. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20: A Promise Forgotten**

Not long after parting from Kairi, Mew was left to his own devices in a ship he knew nothing about. So naturally his first given response was to chuckle confidently with his fists on his hips and look around.

"White walls and floors as far as the eye can see...Hopefully this place isn't built like a maze or its gonna be rough to navigate." Mew stopped in place and alternated hopping on one foot to get his blood pumping a bit.

"_Feels like its been almost a month since I've gotten a fight...I wonder who I'm gonna run into first? Solaris? Lunis? Heck, Justek?" _As he moved on to stretching his arms from side-to-side he hastily corrected himself, _"Oh yeah, can't forget Joe Dark! I oughta break him free if I run into him..."_

He closed his eyes and remembered the one dreadful encounter he had with the would-be Dark King, then started up some canned laughter, "Ooooor maybe that's _not _such a good idea..."

Ending his preparation with a roll of his neck until the top of his neck cricked, Mew stared down the straight and narrow hall ahead and flicked his pointer finger and thumb up like a pistol.

"Alright...The final battle awaits! Here I come Justek!" Mew bolted forward with neither the dust nor wind at his back. He climbed an incline before it became stairs and arrived in a hub with three separate corridors.

Mew dug his heels in to stop while his eyes darted between his three choices, "M-Multiple choices already huh?"

He steadily tapped his left toes on the ground and picked out his path by closing his eyes and moving his right pointer back and forth between the three. He thrust it out towards the right side of the room, only for his smile to turn into a wobbly smirk as he then swiftly pointed to the left door.

"Yeah! That's the way to go!" He told himself as he headed towards it.

_Ten minutes of aimless running around later..._

"Me and my big mouth!" Mew barked at himself upon winding back and forth through a snake-like corridor, "This is like the second time I've gone through this hall!"

At the tail end of it though lied a wide-open room similar to the one he started out in. Or quite possibly...

"Wait just a gosh darn second here!" Mew planted his hands on his hips, gave the three corridors the stink-eye, and then turned around and zipped down the stairway behind him. Then he came back up a second later and glared at the three doors again.

"I've already been through here! Son of a-!" Mew bit his teeth together, grunted out an angry huff, then through the process of elimination knew he had to go down the middle path.

"Can't believe he did that. What a waste of space..." He was grumbling incoherently all the way up the stairs. Since he let himself get lost once, Mew would make sure not to let it happen again.

He ran his hand along the right wall and tried to get a feel for the material of this place. But this was built out of nothing he'd ever experienced before. Obviously there was machinery underneath to keep this mammoth vessel afloat, but trying to follow the flow of electricity would only get him more lost than he was earlier.

"Hopefully Kairi's not having the same trouble I am..." And he hoped that Riku wouldn't be in the same position whenever he arrived here.

When he got to the top of the stairs, this time four corridors were there to greet him, one in each corner of this oddly square shaped room.

"Ugh, again?" Mew parked himself in the center of the room and looked around. Then he crossed his arms and looked at his right foot tapping on the ground, his expression one of deep thought.

He then raised his head up and snapped his fingers towards the ceiling to proclaim dramatically, "Just because I ain't that smart doesn't mean I'm dumb! No amount of labyrinths in the world, nay, the universe, are gonna keep me from stopping your big plans Justek!"

Then, in a brief moment of genius, it dawned on Mew, _"Come to think about it...What even __**is**__ Justek's plan?"_

The only thing Auris had told them was that he desired "the end of everything", which is about as vague sounding of an apocalypse as one can get. Solaris and Lunis had been following their father's orders but nothing about their behavior made any sense with his supposed goals. And through the two vocal encounters with Justek himself Mew couldn't figure out anything about the guys' personality or what he stood for.

"Haaaaaa...I really shouldn't think too much about right now," Mew leaned his head back and let out a sigh, "I gotta put all that brain power into getting a move on."

He surveyed the four doors one more time and tried tackling them with logic, _"Obviously there's only one way forward from here. The other three doors lead to mazes. IF I had to take a guess, I'd say the two behind me aren't gonna get me closer to Justek. __**Except**__...I bet that's what he WANTS me to think." _

It was a sound theory that quickly looped in Mew's head to him assuming that he thought Justek wanted him to think was ALSO what he wanted him to think. It was a loop that'd continue to grow until Mew shook his head and yelled out, "Augh this is getting nowhere fast!"

He turned to the upper right corner and trusted his gut instincts and a bit of luck to guide him. Biting his teeth, he bolted for the door and hoped for the best.

It didn't take long for Mew to encounter a winding corridor much like the one he had gotten lost in before. But he held out for a bit in hopes that the path would change up, even just a tiny bit. And as he neared where the corridor began before, the path began to incline and curve.

"Whoo hoo!" He cheered as he climbed a spiral path further into the ship. At the top he had to stop in place, as the ground made a sudden, sharp decline into a bowl shaped floor. This room had a shape more in line with a three-dimensional oval, with there being only one door straight ahead to worry about.

And that, naturally, drew Mew's attention and made him cautious walking into the room. He raised his right hand and tensed it up slightly to be ready to draw his sword at a moment's notice.

The air directly before him twisted up in five separate spots. From them emerged five spheres comprised of the same foggy mass as the rest of the Vortexians, but all of them were white instead of the usual black.

"Guess these must be the last of them..." Mew drew his right hand back, took his stance, and waited for them with a smirk. The Vortexians began to morph, their mass stretching out into five distinct human-like shapes, each wielding their own distinct but familiar weapons.

"_Hey wait that's...my sword?"_ And not just his. There was Alex's sword, Riku's sword, Kairi's staff, and even Joe Dark's dagger, _"They're copying us!" _

His copy was front-and-center of the crowd and came straight for him. It swung the sword down and Mew raised his to block it, feeling he'd only need minimal effort to deflect it. Reality came knocking hard when Mew suddenly found his sword knocked to the ground and his right knee bending.

"Whoa!" Mew widened his eyes as the Joe Dark copy came flying straight at him with the dagger aimed at the center of his face. Mew hopped back and lowered his sword slightly to block the dagger.

Then Alex and Riku's copies targeted him from the sides. The battleground was quickly becoming too cramped for Mew's liking. His muscles tightened and he briefly released his sword to thrust his hands out. He had to call upon hurricane strong winds to blow his aggressors away.

His copy and Joe Dark's worked in tandem to strike him head-on, but Mew narrowly slipped off to the right and pursued Alex's copy before they got their footing. He pulled his sword back to his left hand and immediately swung it with all his might at the copy's neck.

He felt an all-too familiar whack on the back of his head that diverted his body and thus his swing towards the copy of Alex's sword. Mew grit his teeth and glanced left to find that Kairi's copy was coming in for a second swing towards the front of his face.

"_They're hitting with the same strength as the real deals!" _He said with the throbbing pain on the back of his skull as evidence.

He dispelled his sword and ducked under the staff. Then he lunged forward and dragged his fist up towards Alex's copy. He managed to slip it behind his sword and clobber him in the chin.

But this put him in a compromising position for the other three copies to target him from behind. Mew could feel them coming even though they exuded no aggression. He drew his sword again and whipped around on the spot. His knee twisted slightly, his thigh feeling the brunt of its pain, but ultimately managed to slam his sword into the copies' weapons to knock them back.

"_Gotta get out of this spot...!" _Mew hastily glanced right and saw an opening to the left of Kairi's copy and flew for it. He had to take his knees to the ground and slide underneath the wide berth of her staff to finish his escape.

He then got back up and turned around just in time to have to fend off Alex's copy lashing his sword at him wildly. He drew his sword but every strike dragged him a couple feet back.

"_And they've even got their fighting styles down to a T!" _These were by far the elite of the elite in the Vortexian ranks, but they were still machines. The rules stayed the same. All Mew had to do was strike them really hard once and they'd break down.

...Easier said than done given how tough they were individual, let alone as a five-man assault group. Alex gave up the pursuit and Riku and Joe Dark's copies picked up the slack from the sides. They were coming in too fast for Mew to be able to summon up the wind necessary to repel them,

"But...!" Mew gathered some wind to his front and thrust back out of their reach. But then came his own copy, who knew of his devilish tricks ahead of time and had started to draw his sword behind Mew the moment he escaped.

"Shoot!" Mew clenched his teeth and braced himself to take the blow. As it turns out getting hit with a sword the size of his body doesn't actually feel good. Who would've known?

His back could take the pressure as he launched higher into the air, where the other four copies were ready to dog-pile him with their weapons. Mew drew his word in his left hand with a finger motioning for the white trigger.

"Am I_ seriously _going to have to go Light Form for these chumps?!" He sounded more annoyed than angry as he pulled the trigger halfway down.

Suddenly, the copies froze in mid-air and their bodies crumpled up like they were wads of used up paper. With one loud crunch they were firmly obliterated.

"...Huh?" Mew fluttered his eyelids and turned around towards the ground. His copy shared the same fate not a moment after.

"Uhhhh..." The way the copies were dealt with was unusual to say the least. Mew's mind immediately jumped to Gravitus but not only was he dead, the copies weren't surrounded by his aura.

He quickly landed on the ground and took a brief glance around. There didn't appear to be anyone here with him, at least not at first. But then he heard a groan of exertion coming from the right and turned to find a door there that wasn't there before...And a strange little alien floating before it.

His head was shaped like a thumb with two tiny funnel-shaped antennae and was attached to a navy-blue cloak. A pair of white gloves and muddy brown shoes floated independently from the cloak with not a limb to be found. A single eye without an iris took up a third of his face.

Mew could call the alien a "he" because he knew him. It took a minute for the memory of such to snap to the forefront of his mind but when he did he immediately smiled and hollered out, "Hey!"

He took a couple steps forward and the alien raised one hand, its size growing tenfold to block his path. Mew paused and poked his head around to see that the alien was hunched over and sweating slightly.

He shrunk his hand back down once he caught his breath, then positioned himself upright. After dusting off the front of his cloak he remarked, "I wondered what all that commotion was about...I should've figured it'd be you."

He had a gentlemanly gruff to his voice, but added a little bluntness towards Mew specifically. His skin folded over half his eye and he began to glare up into Mew's face. The last time the two had seen each other the alien was just as tall as him, so this took a little getting used to.

"Hahaha, yeah. Thanks for the save though..." Mew smiled and waited for the alien to say something back. Instead he continued looking up at him with a nervous ruffle on the left side of his face.

"..." Mew's smile weakened cause he knew why the alien was on edge around him.

"Its been a while hasn't it Mr. Reality?" Mew tried to break the ice by speaking the alien's adopted name.

"Three years, give or take." He responded back, still sounding a little tense.

"...Yeah." Mew rubbed the back of his head and looked away for a moment. To say that things were complicated with the alien was putting it lightly.

To recap: Mew went to the Mushroom Kingdom. An alien, this same alien he's talking to now, played a game with him using reality-bending powers. Mew beat the alien, barely, and saved the Mushroom Kingdom.

The part that Mew took a little longer to remember was what came after that. After stopping a leviathan from destroying all of existence, the alien had been left with a bunch of parasites in his head. The parasites were dormant but threatened to retake control of the alien's mind if he overexerted his powers again. Mew had no means of taking the parasites out at the time but promised that he would...Only for Alex to wipe his memories and toss him back home almost immediately after.

It was the longest lasting promise Mew had ever made, and it never should have been that way to begin with. Mew knew he had to start making that right somewhere, so he looked Mr. Reality in the eye and put on his best smile.

"There's no excuse for me forgetting about you for so long," Mew squeezed his hands together before his chest and winked one eye shut as he hastily forced out an answer, "Soooooo...can you believe me when I tell you I had amnesia until today?"

The alien's skin ruffled and he started flicking his rubbery right ear. With a terse grumble he said, "If it were anyone else I'd have wiped them in an instant..."

He then opened his eye all the way and mentioned, "But you've earned more than just my trust Mew. So I choose to believe you."

"Again, I'm reeeeeeally sorry. If you want to know what happened-"

Mr. Reality pushed his hand up to Mew's mouth and remarked bluntly, "No need. What matters is that you're here now..."

"Hehe" Mew chuckled as the alien pulled his hand away. Yet with the two's bond reforged there was a HUGE matter bothering Mew now.

"...Uhhh, say, Mr. Reality..."

"Yes?" He politely replied.

"What the HELL are you doing here?!" Mew exclaimed with his arms swung down towards the ground.

Mr. Reality turned and wagged his right hand towards himself, "Come into my room. We can talk there."

He floated towards the door and Mew followed him in, having to duck a little first. It wasn't a big room. It wouldn't even fit on the first floor of Mew's humble home. But it had some nice accommodations like a stocked fridge full of foods Mew didn't recognize, and a bubble-shaped television set. Plus there was a window looking out into space. Judging from its position, they were pointed away from the sun at the moment.

Mr. Reality floated around and laid one hand towards the ground to say, "Have a seat Mew."

Mew confusedly looked around and said, "Where are the chairs?"

"Why would there be chairs?" Mr. Reality inquired with the skin slanted over his eye. Mew gazed at the empty space underneath his cloak and dryly chuckled as he sat himself down.

He looked at the TV for a moment and saw some familiar footage playing out across four separate feeds. Alex fighting Solaris, Riku facing some odd autonomous blob of flesh, Kairi carrying Gabriel through the halls of this ship, and finally himself dealing with the Vortexians in Sancturia. Four types of footage from both the past and present...

"_I'll...bring that up later..." _Mew kept that somewhat unnerving sight in the back of his mind and looked to Mr. Reality for answers to his earlier question.

He was fiddling his hands around in the air and looked a little tense despite breaking the ice again with him. So Mew figured he could use a little more pep in his step.

"So how've things been back at home?"

"..." Mr. Reality sucked his tiny mouth in and then spat out an answer following a sigh, "Mostly fine. After I tidied everything up I admitted what had happened to our king and spent about a month in prison...The king was lenient on me though, and even hired me on as his advisor afterwards."

"Haha, see? The truth worked out for you after all!" Mew said, his voice full of praise.

"My wife and kids moved into the palace not long after that. It took a long time to explain what happened to me...And there were some arguments. But my wife chose to stay by my side. And at the very least, I could perform some minor magic tricks for my kids."

"So there hasn't been any...?"

"No," Mr. Reality shook his head, "The parasites have been relatively docile ever since that day. But...of course, I could never escape the anxiety. I spent many a day and night worrying that my peaceful life was not to last. And with there being no sign of you..."

Mew hung his head slightly only for Mr. Reality to slide a hand on over to his chin and prop it up. He then patted him on the side of the face before withdrawing his hand.

"Someone else appeared to reignite the hope I had lost...A boy by the name of Joe-"

"Dark?!" Mew shouted in utter shock. Mr. Reality's eye widened in response.

"You know him?"

"I didn't back then, I do NOW...sort of," Mew rubbed the back of his head and vaguely recalled a minor detail from back then, "Why's that surprise you? You sent a phantom of him after me."

"I-I had forgotten about that." Mr. Reality admitted.

"That was one big whirlwind of crazy at the end there so I can't blame ya really." Mew chuckled then silently waved the back of his hand out to prompt him to continue.

"Ahem! Anyways...Joe Dark and a ghoulish friend of his that looked oddly similar to Alex Whiter appeared in our castle. They had caught wind of my powers from other worlds and wanted to recruit me to get revenge on the real Alex Whiter. I joined up more-so under the assumption that going after Alex would lead to me finding you."

"And as luck would have it, Joe Dark's powers were able to calm the parasites and allow me to use my powers on a greater scope...Temporarily. He could not remove them, however."

"Huh..." Mew murmured, logging that away in the back of his head, where he swore he heard 'D.' chuckling to himself.

"I didn't know how long I'd be gone for, so I used my powers to freeze time on my world until I could come back. As of now it has been almost a year since I left my family behind."

"That long? What were you doing all that time?"

"We had to find a way to the Mushroom Kingdom the hard way, since I couldn't use enough of my powers to simply teleport us there. Unfortunately, our arrival there was met with hostility from your brother Riku."

Mew closed his eyes and let out a long sigh, "Lemme guess, you told him you needed to talk to me and Joe Dark's hyper-aggressive attitude gave Riku the wrong idea."

"That's...scarily accurate," Mr. Reality remarked with a single dew of sweat trickling down the right of his eye, "Regardless, he defeated all three of us and I only just barely managed to bargain for Joe Dark's survival."

"_Damn, way to go Riku..." _Mew said, only **mildly **impressed, "And after that you ran into Justek?"

"Not right away no. Once Joe Dark regained consciousness he stormed off into space and I struggled to keep up with him. But when I saw this massive energy beam hurtling through space I thought it'd be wise to follow it, since its power felt comparable to a Dark King like him."

"What I wound up finding after a couple more days were these two men talking to one another on a lone asteroid. The taller of the two men suddenly turned and called out to me by name. I was surprised and yet...not alarmed. There was something to the way the man spoke that made me feel at ease. Couldn't say the same for the brute in black armor standing beside him though..."

"And the man that spoke to you was Justek?"

"'My name is Justek...' That was what he said once I was on the rock. He was tall, imposing, but never seemed to be aggressive. The first thing he did was sit down and smile, and offer me a drink."

"I...wanted to decline but...His gestures were pleasant, his tone was genuine. The next thing I knew I was sharing drinks with a complete strange who presented himself like a very close friend."

"He knew who you were?" Mew said, finding that very suspicious.

"My name, my planet, my current and former occupations...Even the name of the parasites in my head. It all came out in the open during one half-hour long, natural conversation."

"No kidding..." Mew whispered, finding that behavior a little hard to swallow from a "destroyer of everything".

"But uhhh, I hate to burst your bubble there Mr. Reality...Justek's not as nice as he made himself out to be."

"I know about all that. He told me how he had been imprisoned until today, why he had been locked away, and why he was here.

"R-Really now...? What did he say? Tell me as best you can remember."

"'I wanted to meet you.' That's what he said."

"_Uh-oh. Red alert!" _Mew hastily leaned out and put his hands on the floor as he asked, "And then?!"

Mr. Reality recoiled slightly and started scratching the side of his head, "He said...'There is a problem that needs solving, and I was hoping that you could fill in the blanks for me.' And then he pulled out a tablet written in a language I had never seen in my life and made me an offer."

"'If you use your powers to help solve my problem, then I can ensure the erasure of the parasites in your head, and a return to the normal life you led. No strings attached. You have my word.'"

Mew knew in unspoken terms where this was leading. He didn't want to believe it, and he didn't want to say it. But he had to. Even with a lump in the back of his throat...

"And you did it."

Mr. Reality's skin slid over his entire eye and his hand winced shut. He bit his upper lip over his lower lip and talked to himself, his tone an expression of loathsome misery, "He was completely honest in his intentions and I believed every word of it. And I don't even know what it is he had me do..."

"How can you **not** know?" Mew inquired in none-too-harsh a tone, and yet the alien thrust his eye open and took it as an insult.

"I just don't ok?!" He yelled, proceeding to back away and turn his head aside, "It was a moment of weakness...I-I'm just so tired Mew. I want to sleep in my own bed, wake up next to my family, and grow old alongside them... And for that fleeting chance at a return to normalcy, I may have just sold out the rest of the universe..."

He glanced a little out from the side of his eye to mutter to Mew, "I forgave you...But you should never forgive me. I failed the trust you put in me back then."

He then turned his back to Mew, clearly intent on wanting to be left alone. But without a second thought Mew rose to his feet and approached the alien while telling him, "I ain't gonna hate you for THAT, silly."

"Why?" Mr. Reality asked while turning his head around.

"Well a lotta people tell me I'm not very good at understanding big moral dilemmas...And they aren't wrong. But when it comes to wanting to be with family and living a normal life? I totally get that!" As the alien gave him a wide-eye look Mew smiled and remarked, "And besides, I really don't think what you did is as bad as you're making it out to be!"

"...How do you figure?" He replied with a tilt of the head.

"Well if Justek wanted to destroy everything, he'd have forced the parasites to work on you and summon that leviathan. And clearly, he hasn't won yet," Mew cracked a smile and proclaimed, "I bet he just used your powers to make this fancy-schmancy ship!"

"No I'm afraid not." Mr. Reality replied, sounding exhausted from Mew's relentless enthusiasm.

"Eh?" Mew popped his eyes open and looked shocked.

"He had someone else make this ship long ago, on the off-chance his original plan failed. We stopped by that person's garage and picked it up after our conversation."

"...O-Oh," Mew chuckled a lot to himself and slowly turned around to hide the wobbly frown on his face, _"Shoot! So much for that idea!"_

He hastily spun back around and proclaimed, "S-Still! Doesn't matter to me at all! There's still time to stop Justek!"

"S-Stop him? By yourself?" Mr. Reality remarked in a not very hopeful sounding tone.

"Well...Maybe not," Mew gave an honest answer and eased up on his smile a little, "But I'm going to find and talk to him before the others catch up."

"Auris told me Justek's going to be the 'end of everything'. You called him an honest, hospitable man. The only way to get to a person's true character is to talk to them one-on-one. No aggression. No hidden intentions. Just two men standing eye-to-eye," Mew bobbed his head and looked Mr. Reality straight in the eye, "And if it boils down to a fight, I'll save the day like I always have. After that, I'm gonna work extra hard to get those parasites out of your head!"

Mew then thrust a thumbs-up at the alien and told him with a beaming smile, "Consider the renewal of our promise the motivation I need to win, ok buddy?!"

Mr. Reality relented his personal grief and let out a long, agonizing sigh, after which he planted his hand over his eye and remarked, "I've only ever gotten to know two humans personally...If your whole race is anything like you two, its unbelievable that you've lasted this long."

"You're telling me!" Mew happily declared, "So uhhh...Where is Justek right now anyways?"

Mr. Reality glided his hand around Mew and had him follow it out of the room so he could see it pointing towards the stairs he saw earlier.

"Take those stairs and keep following the path until you get to the front of the ship. There you'll find an elevator leading down to the observation deck."

"And that's where he's waiting huh?"

"He should be." Mr. Reality said with certainty.

"Alright-y then!" Mew clapped his hands and glanced over his shoulder at the alien, "You just stay back here and rest easy man. Oh! But if you see any of my friends come on by, can you tell them where I went?"

"The other three on TV right?"

"Yeah! Thanks ahead of time!" Mew darted off for the stairs, and was gone in seconds.

Mr. Reality was left shaking his head and muttering to himself, "You're really one-of-a-kind Mew..."

As he was about to retreat into his comfort zone he heard some footsteps rushing across the floor. He turned around and caught a certain brown-haired girl hauling a green-skinned samurai over her shoulders. She took a break in the center of the room to catch her breath.

"Ugh! If only there was somewhere I could put you down safely..." She muttered to herself.

Mr. Reality blinked a couple times and started floating towards the girl he recognized from the recorded footage.

"Can I be of assistance, perhaps?" His voice got the girl's attention in a way that, honestly, he should have seen coming.

"AH, AN ALIEN!" She jumped, dropping the big man onto the ground and hastily drawing her staff in Mr. Reaity's face. Her pale face brightened red in the cheeks when she looked back and saw the mistake she made with the man.

"Calm down. I'm an ally," Mr. Reality bowed his head and remarked, "Or if you'd prefer, a friend of your friend Mew."

"M-Mew...?" The girl lowered her staff slightly and bemoaned aloud to herself, "Of course Mew's friends with an alien..."

"I can provide a safe spot for your friend so you can catch up with him, if you'd like." His kind offer probably would've resulted in him gaining a second, lumpier head had he not mentioned Mew previously.

"Mew went through here?" She inquired.

"Yes, just up those stairs..." Mr. Reality swerved to the right and pointed at the stairs. Though curiously, it didn't feel like they were in the same spot they were just moments ago.

He furrowed his eye while the girl mentioned to him, "Well I guess you don't **look** like a bad guy. Fine, keep Gabriel safe for me until I get back, ok?"

The girl dispelled her staff and rushed towards the stairs. Mr. Reality looked at the beefy man and then cracked his hands before his face. With a long sigh he made his hands bigger to act as a stretcher to carry him back to his room.

And he worried that he may have just made a wrong call when it came to giving that girl directions...

_Next Time: A Brother's Will_


	22. Chapter 21

**Chapter 21: Fatal Clash**

_Place: The Ark of Nothing_

_Time: 15 minutes after Mew and Kairi arrived_

The time it took Riku to go from Venus to the Sun was just a little bit shorter than it took his compatriots. He was always looking forward and never turning back, even for a second, to remind himself of where he'd come from. His mind was focused entirely on his pursuit of the Phoenix of Destruction.

Even as the Sun stared at him with its crimson hue he kept his eyes wide-open and narrowed in on Justek's ship floating around the horizon. Its spherical shape and mirage-like surface couldn't hide the entrance from his all-seeing gaze. He darted straight towards the back and landed on the perch before the door going into a run.

His heart was moving at a steady pace even as he found a door standing in his way. He drew his sword and cut through it in one graceful slice. The material retracted into the walls like he had cut through muscle, but the disturbing imagery was far out of his mind as he climbed the stairs and found himself accosted by a choice.

Two doors. One left, one right, split the path further into the ship. He had to pause for a few brief seconds to gather his thoughts and sense out the trail of energy going towards either door. On the left side he felt nothing...But on the right he felt two trails. His brother's energy was faint, all thanks to the flames that the Phoenix of Destruction had left burnt over it.

Riku's heart beat started to quicken and he rushed to the right door without prompting. This one retracted all on its own and allowed Riku to rush down its halls without being deterred.

It wasn't long after that Riku came across another choice within a diamond shaped room. There were four doors, four paths. This would require a little more effort to get by. Riku took in a deep breath through his nose and quietly pushed the wind down and through each door around him.

"_They all lead to dead ends..." _Riku's right eye twitched and he pulled out a bit of a scowl as he withdrew the wind to his side and thought about this conundrum a little more, _"This ship...Its physiology must be changing according to what Justek's wants." _

While he was deep in thought he caught a whiff of more of the Phoenix of Destruction's fire. A scent he'd rather not indulge in for long, yet it was a necessary step to move through this maze, it seemed.

The hint of flame came from the space between the northern doors, where nothing stood but a white corner wall. Riku opened his eyes slightly and drew his sword between his waist. He cupped his hands and was ready for his katana when he assumed Light Form. He lit his blade with white light and cleanly slashed down the center of his field of vision.

The wave of light sped towards the wall and cut through it like paper, revealing a hidden staircase. There were char marks on the material as it retracted into the walls, signifying that the Phoenix had come to the same conclusion he had.

Riku kept his blade on edge and darted through the door before it could seal itself shut. He just barely made it, having to barrel through and land in a roll on the ground. But he got right back up, narrowed his eyes, and bolted straight up the stairs.

The scent of the Phoenix's flames was stronger the further he went in. Confrontation was inevitable, but sooner than Riku had expected. But this time a battle would happen. No more tricks. No more running. No escape for either one of them.

Justek was the bigger threat in this ship, but Riku wasn't about to underestimate his other foe because of it. He had seen what the Phoenix of Destruction was capable of but was only 90% positive that he'd be able to beat him. That 10% of uncertainty came from the glove the Phoenix wore. Some terrible power had to be constrained by it. And if push came to shove there is no doubt that the Phoenix wouldn't hesitate to unleash it.

There wasn't much time left for Riku to go over his strategy. He drowned out all other distractions in his head until only the Phoenix of Destruction occupied his mind. It was dangerous to allow that psychopath in like that. But Riku knew he was stronger than him in more ways than one. And this battle would be the proof of that.

After rushing up a stairway that seemed to reach towards the heavens, Riku stepped into the room beyond planting his feet firmly into the ground and glaring straight ahead. He didn't have to wait and confirm the Phoenix of Destruction's presence. The madman was right in the center of the room, motionless, almost as though anticipating his arrival.

"You're persistent we'll give you that..." The Phoenix made a snide remark as they laid their left hand out from their hip and spun it around with a careless mockery of Riku's presence following suit, "Like a mosquito desperate to suck upon the blood of a lion..."

A circular room. At a quick glance Riku calculated it was five-hundred feet in circumference. There was a wide window on each side that began and ended at the doorways on each side of the room. The space between him and the Phoenix of Destruction was roughly one hundred feet...

Riku made sure his foe didn't escape his gaze even by a millimeter. When the arena had been scoped out Riku looked back over at the Phoenix and saw him peering at him from over his left shoulder.

"You should know better than to corner a lion..." His eyes started to glisten to intimidate Riku. He was left completely unfazed.

Riku held onto his katana and stood upright, holding his ground between the Phoenix of Destruction and the door back out of here.

"I've stood in a mausoleum filled with fragments of Death...You don't scare me in the slightest, Phoenix of Destruction." He remarked in a stoic voice.

"There are worse things out there than Death," The Phoenix sneered as he turned around and clawed his extended hand into the air to wreath it in flames, "And we...are the worst of them all."

"I find it difficult to disagree with you there." Riku muttered back.

The Phoenix squeezed the flames out of his hand and waved it around in the air, "And who are you to judge us, hmmm? A third-rate piece of trash spawned from a second-rate useless copy hardly has the right to an opinion."

"And who the HELL do you think **you** are?" Riku remarked back, "You're not God! You don't get to decide who lives and who dies."

"You're closer than you'd want to know, calling us 'God'..." The Phoenix ominously remarked before clawing his hands before the front of his chest and muttering in a barely subdued tone of sadism, "And don't worry about that...Because we've already chosen not to let **anyone** live."

A smirk stretched onto his face as he began to chuckle deep within himself, "Destruction is inevitable. We're just speeding up the process is all..."

"You're a murderer!" Riku exclaimed, and waved his free hand out to his side without pause, "And calling yourself a force of nature won't change that."

The Phoenix steadily closed his eyes and shook his head, "Arguing with you is pointless."

"I agree..." Riku whispered, his hand tightening around the hilt of his katana.

"You're not trying to kill us out of some naive sense of justice...This is all to give yourself a sense of satisfaction from your otherwise worthless existence."

The Phoenix twisted his body sideways and laid the back of his hand down towards Riku dismissively, "The third-rate spawn...Always crawling in the shadow of his betters since the day of his inception. Always comparing your worth to the 'brother' that created you..."

The Phoenix swiped his hand down to his side and uttered out bluntly, "Pathetic. Simply pathetic. Why do you value the opinion of that overly idealistic piece of scum so highly?"

Riku's lips quivered as he found himself drawn to reply to his foe's words, "My brother thinks positively about most things. And after today I'd even say that makes him flawed..."

Riku swallowed the iota of doubts he had and narrowed his gaze towards the Phoenix of Destruction, "But him choosing to believe in the good you once had is not one of them. **You** failed **him**. You failed the expectations of the Elemental Overlord. And you failed the people who regarded you as a friend and ally."

"I will not allow your string of failures to end in the destruction of everything."

"You are one to talk about failure...O' slayer of the Hero of Time," The Phoenix's snide remark sent a brief, deathly chill down Riku's spine, "Oh that's right. We did a little time jumping to learn about our ill-bred offspring. So we know all about your life and the failures you've tried to compensate for."

"And you think by killing us it'll start course correcting your life?" The Phoenix reared his head back and started rupturing his lungs with laughter. When the cacophony of sounds came to a sudden end, the madman lurched his head back up and declared, "That miserable copy of ours will hate you forever if you kill us."

Riku's gaze darted down to the left and a bead of sweat trickled down the side of his face. He felt the disappointment from his brother's face locking him down from all directions, the firm, silent gaze tightening a knot around his heart.

His heart beat stiffened and got louder like a drum would to call forth a mighty storm. For a brief moment he closed his eyes and felt his determination waver.

"_...No."_ He quickly opened them back up and looked the Phoenix in the eyes, firmly grasping his katana at his hip as the knot around his heart unraveled.

"My brother might hate me...But that's a risk I'm willing to take." He said with a firm stance forward, and darkness calmly creeping over his body to become a part of his wardrobe.

"I will be the darkness in his place. I will be the light that you abandoned," As his demonic wings spread to their full span alongside their angelic pair, Riku gripped both this form's weapons tightly in his hands and watched the Phoenix's eyes widen in ecstasy, "And if the path I walk is a lonely one, then I don't care. But I refuse to let your shadow loom over my brother any longer. Today you die, Phoenix of Destruction!"

A silent smile crept over the Phoenix's face as he began to reach for his pockets. Riku's eyes flashed wide-open and he darted straight across the room in a second. He had to be faster to keep his foe's hand from reaching and immediately swung his katana down towards his wrist.

The Phoenix twisted his body and thrust his left hand up to block the blade with his palm. Two bubbles of energy, one light and one of flame, erupted around their bodies. Riku fended off the force that tried to throw him back and tried to peer through the flames.

The Phoenix's hand still moved for the Gaia Temporis. Riku denied him the chance by slinging his dagger down and carving a dark rift between the fingertips and the pocket. The Phoenix retracted his scraped hand and immediately curled it into a fist thrust right up at Riku's katana.

Riku bounced back and though the punch whiffed, he could feel that the blunt force carried behind it would have greatly damaged his insides. He landed on the ground and recalled his dagger. He slashed at the air with his katana a dozen times before the Phoenix could even blink, each attack firing out a blade of light.

The Phoenix whipped his bare left hand around in the air to smack the waves into the walls and ceiling. All while backing away so he could continue putting his hand towards the pocket.

Riku moved right before him with weapons crossed towards the Phoenix's neck. His foe had no choice but to rely on both his hands to snag the blades and force them outward. Riku planted his feet down and shoved the Phoenix forward. The bottom of the Phoenix's shoes were shaved down in his attempt to fight back. Though top-wise, he was managing to force Riku's blades away.

He thrust his head through the divide and opened his mouth wide. His rotten maw glowed red like a cauldron coming to life, and spewed a beam of flame forth like an erupting volcano.

Riku pulled back and to the left at the last second and whipped his weapons over his head. He charged right back in and swung down at the Phoenix's head. He moved away and whipped his head to the right to try and char Riku black one more time.

Riku casually sliced open a dark rift to capture the flames and then opened another rift to send them right back at their owner. Only now they were black, consumed by the darkness and thus unable to be absorbed by him.

The Phoenix grappled with the center of the flames by clawing his left hand into the center of them. His body was forcibly dragged towards the window, and his arm started bending back into his shoulder.

"S-Stubborn bastard...!" The Phoenix roared before suddenly throwing all his might into thrusting his hand out and consuming the dark flames in an even bigger beam of howling fire. The ground was permanently scorched but no damage was done to the windows.

The Phoenix attempted another go at his trump card but Riku was there to intercept him. The Phoenix twirled around, drew his sword, and countered Riku's katana with a mighty slash. Riku fought against being forced back and continued pressing onward, stabbing his dagger down towards the Phoenix's chest.

The way the Phoenix snarled his teeth showed how desperate he was to correct his mistake. But it was too late. _Far_ too late. The blade ripped through the cloth of his shirt and made contact with the skin...Which quickly became coated over with a certain purplish metal.

Even with all his strength Riku's dagger couldn't break through and the force of his strike was repelled back onto him. His body was flung up into the ceiling back first and left pinned there for a couple seconds, which was far too much time in his eyes.

The all-consuming crimson light opened Riku's eyes to his foe's next attack. A devouring ball of crimson hate compacted an incalculable amount of flames between the Phoenix's palms.

The furious widening of the Phoenix's eyes signaled its release as a mighty beam of flame. Riku held on tight to his weapons and dived straight to the ground, leaping forth towards his foe like the agile jaguar.

He swung his weapons before his head and cut the Phoenix across the gut. The force of his attack shoving him away and giving him proper time to stand and whip the minuscule amount of blood from his blades. The flames from the Phoenix's attack lingered on the ceiling and fell to the ground as a rain of relatively harmless embers.

But their presence increased the heat across the battlefield and made it harder for Riku to see his foe. The Phoenix's body started crackling with enough electricity to take out an entire city.

More distractions. That's all it was. Riku took a deep breath and closed his eyes, waiting for the first bolt of lightning to come towards him. The Phoenix fired one off and it rebounded off the ceiling. Riku dashed five feet forward in an instant and cut through the lightning with his katana.

He then twirled around towards the next oncoming lightning and cut through it with his dagger. Two bolts came flying for his front and back but he used both his weapons to slice them in half as his little dance neared its end.

He then darted straight forward into the eye of the thunderstorm and reached his right hand deep inside...Only to find nothing but a large metallic statue firing the electricity off. He immediately withdrew his hand and opened his eyes.

The room had become almost completely dark. Where once there were windows now lied a wall of stone. Only the occasional pulse of energy through the wall illuminated the area. The Phoenix's trail had gone cold, but not silent, as Riku could hear his foe's maniacal chuckles poking out through the darkness.

He had dropped his power down to zero to avoid detection, which was a smarter move than Riku had expected him to pull...Yet exposed the madman's fear right out in the open.

Riku eyed the space behind his left shoulder and tucked his wings into his back. The Phoenix would make the first move in this stand-off, guaranteed. But from where, Riku did not know...

Riku decided to entice the Phoenix to strike by walking towards the rocky veil right in front of him in an attempt to take it down. The moment his first step raised the Phoenix roared into view wreathed in flames and clawed down at the front of Riku's armor.

Riku pulled his foot back and sliced his katana down at the Phoenix's arm. His foe ducked and whipped his leg at Riku's ankles to throw him off balance. Riku's heart beat raced and he propped his weapons up before his chest to defend against the Phoenix following through with an uppercut.

Riku was knocked towards the ceiling and managed to get his feet turned towards it a second faster than needed. He thrust back down and slashed his weapons out at empty air, turning and landing right back on his feet the moment after.

"You are the darkness AND the light? We have grown beyond such feeble mortal concepts..." The Phoenix coldly whispered through the veil of shadows.

Riku stared around where he stood then looked straight ahead. He raised his katana up, let it flicker with light for a moment, and then stabbed it into the ground. Light filled the room, and a hiss and screech came from the agonized Phoenix as his eyes were blinded by the light.

Riku turned around instantly and charged his foe straight-on as they flailed around in place. Riku's eyes widened as he plunged his katana towards the space where the Phoenix's empty heart lied, only for his blade to be snagged mid-air and pushed towards the ground.

Riku stopped, stood his ground, and tried to pull his sword free. The Phoenix tugged him in closer and drilled his searing bloodshot red gaze into Riku's memory as a slow, haunting laugh crawled from his throat.

"You are his brother after all..." He said not as praise, but mockery.

"RAHHH!" The Phoenix thrust his open palm into Riku's face and struck him with pure tetonic force. Riku's brain was briefly jumbled and a trickle of blood came out of his nose when he recovered.

The air trembled. The rocks were torn free from the walls and flung at Riku, returning light to the battleground. With only a second to spare Riku spun around in a complete circle and sliced through all the rocks. He stabilized with the Phoenix coming straight at him with their fist drawn back.

Riku raised his blades to defend the first punch but the Phoenix quickly lunged his second punch beside the blades and into Riku's neck. Riku coughed and felt a little dizzy. He refused to yield, keeping his defenses strong even as his brain felt dizzy.

Sweat drizzled over his eyes and his adrenaline was kicking into overdrive. The Phoenix kept on swinging with blow after earth-shaking blow, forcing Riku back towards the wall in a matter of seconds. Riku glanced back for a moment then back to the Phoenix.

There wasn't much time. His mind came up with an idea. A quick, stupid, yet at the same time brilliant, idea. He held his weapons upside-down and raised them to block the Phoenix's punch. The blunt edge of his katana rubbed against his nose.

He continued to raise his blades and then drove the center of their cross towards his foe's wrist. The Phoenix withdrew it, but not before Riku successfully scraped off part of the top of the skin of his arm.

Before Riku's hasty descent lodged his blades into the ground he flipped them around and stabbed them together towards the Phoenix's chin. The Phoenix grit his teeth and reared his head back. The tip of Riku's blades still found their mark and scarred the front of his chin.

The Phoenix stumbled away and used the back of his hand to wipe the blood closer to his mouth, then licked it up with his tongue. He flashed a smile with bloodstained gums and with a hearty cackle thrust his hand out and tried to fry Riku with a massive lightning bolt.

Riku sped to the right in an instant and braced himself when the electricity rocked the foundation of the ship to its core. He gripped his katana tightly and flung the dagger straight for the Phoenix's chest. Naturally the wicked warrior drew his sword to try and knock it away...All according to Riku's plan.

The dagger stabbed open a dark rift and slipped away undetected. Riku held his ground and let the Phoenix think he had the upper hand for a moment. The Phoenix whipped his sword around and hurtled dozens of waves of flame into Riku's body.

Holding his katana down cut the extent of his burning wrath down to smoldering embers of hate. Riku subtly moved his gaze towards the upper left of his foe and widened his eyes to tear open another dark rift. His dagger shot out from the murky depths and plunged itself straight into the Phoenix's shoulder.

The guttural sounds of his foe's shock pushed Riku forward with feet as light as air. He grabbed onto the handle of his dagger and shoved the blade in deeper, all while the Phoenix's eyes trembled at him with a glare of impotent rage.

Riku then held the dagger like a lever and dragged it down the Phoenix's arm until pulling it free from his elbow. The Phoenix went staggering back some more with his bleeding arm left limp at his side. Riku swiped the blood off his dagger and pointed it at the Phoenix's head.

The Phoenix's eyes were wide but no fear shone within. He licked his lips with malicious intent and through some terrible miracle managed to wiggle his right fingers into a fist. He turned the liquid in his drained blood into pure iron and made a thin blade out of it to cut through his pocket and free the Gaia Temporis from within.

He then turned on a dime and caught the falling stone in his other hand, gripping it tightly as he held it above his head. There was a millisecond of light coming from the stone, and little more than a second of time for Riku to do something or risk losing his advantage.

His gaze darted for the stone and so too did his dagger when let loose from his hand. The blade lodged itself between the gap in the Phoenix's fist and just barely managed to shove the stone out. The Phoenix's confidence faded and his face briefly turned pale as he glanced back and watched the stone bounce along the ground.

"Tsk...!" The Phoenix turned right back around and clawed his hand down at Riku's face with vigorous force. Riku pulled away briefly then curved around the Phoenix to head straight for the Gaia Temporis.

He caught his dagger along the way, good timing too, for he'd soon need it to defend himself from his foe's reckless charge. Engulfed in flames, the Phoenix lunged his whole body at Riku and clocked his left arm straight into his neck.

Riku forced his mouth shut to not allow his foe the use of his air, but his sharp impact with the ground forced it out otherwise. The Phoenix took a deep whiff of the fresh elemental energy and used let out a single, lucid breath as that little bit was just enough to get his right arm healed up.

He then raised both his fists and tried hammering them down into Riku's face. Riku forcefully grabbed his wrists and tossed him overhead. He then quickly turned around and started standing up. The Phoenix smashed down onto the ground and stood with his back lurched upright and his eyes lit up bright and red. He took a quick glance down at the ground, where the Gaia Temporis laid now a few feet away from both of them.

Riku's heart raced as he charged ahead the same time as the Phoenix. He shoved his hands up and his foe thought the same way. When their palms connected their power rippled and roared from their bodies with equivalent force, turning the room briefly into a terrifying maelstrom that'd tear even the strongest human apart.

Their clash lasted for the briefest of moments, as they were both caught up in the maelstrom and torn away straight towards the walls behind them. Riku thrust his palms back to catch himself while the Phoenix rebounded off the wall and looked somewhat dazed kneeling on the ground.

The two warriors were about as even of a match as they could be...But whereas Alex specialized in power, Riku was more confident in his speed. He quickly recovered from the blow back and dashed towards the Gaia Temporis.

In seconds he was leaning towards the ground to scoop the stone up, only for his hand to retreat when Phoenix's sword was thrown in his way. Riku took just a couple steps back and glared up at the Phoenix's sneering face.

"Our hapless copy would've taken the hit..." He taunted aloud.

Riku's heart beat quickened with a flicker of anger and he dove for the Gaia Temporis once more. It blinked out of sight and, by raising his head, Riku found it right back in his foe's grasp.

"_No! I forgot about that!" _Riku cursed himself immensely as the Phoenix waved the stone around in the air beside his face then clasped it firmly before his chest towards him.

"You have no one to blame but yourself for thinking you could stand alone against destruction..."

Riku's eyes slanted and he grit his teeth. He could not see the light unraveling from his body as his anger grew not just towards his foe, but also towards himself...

_A few minutes ago..._

While the two Overlords were in the middle of their heated brawl, they had little idea that an audience of one was coming to watch them. Having left Gabriel in the hands of Mew's odd looking alien friend, Kairi ran up many a stair to catch up with Mew.

She was a little out of breath and griped to herself about the ship's setup, "W-Why...does this place...need so many...stairs?!"

She saw she was nearing the top of them but wasn't feeling too comfortable about it. It was pitch-black up there, and that was generally never a good sign in a completely white ship. Yet seeing how this was the only way forward, she really had no right to complain now.

Before taking one step into the room a huge flash of light forced her to go back and cover her eyes.

"Gah! What the hell?!" She bellowed in surprise. She looked back into the room and after a few more seconds the darkness was gone, revealing to her Riku and Alex engaged in intense combat.

Kairi stared wide-eyed and retreated a couple steps back as rocks went flying from the walls and the two fought close to one another.

"_Riku caught up already?! A-And is he fighting Alex by himself...?! Is he out of his mind?!" _She took another peek into the room and could barely follow along. One second it appeared the Phoenix was winning just for Riku to turn the tables around and have that bastard on the run.

The room was scarred by their eternal feud and being in close proximity to their power gave Kairi goosebumps down her arms. She laid them against her body and tried to stay out of sight, which was only made easy by how ingrained the two were with their battle.

Their blood-boiling battle of brain versus brawn quickly escalated into a stand-off for control over the mysterious Gaia Temporis. Kairi struggled hard to hold still when their clash of power came lashing her way. In the aftermath of their collision she looked into the room to see that things had suddenly spiraled out of Riku's favor.

Alex had reclaimed possession of the Gaia Temporis and Kairi could feel Riku struggling to control the light and darkness together. The Phoenix of Destruction taunted Riku and was prepared to use the Gaia Temporis to finish this fight.

Riku was weakened. What was once an even fight would turn into a slaughter the very moment Alex activated the stone. Kairi gripped the rim of the door and bit her lower lip. Her heart fluttered fast as her mind raced to make a decision.

It couldn't be done with even a hint of hesitation, lest both their lives be lost. Even taking an extra millisecond to touch the Neo Drive over the Angel Drive could decide everything. All she needed was speed, and enough of it, the interrupt Alex in the moment where he resumed time.

The Phoenix of Destruction bit his teeth into a delighted smile and the Gaia Temporis began to shine. Kairi swung her hand straight down for the Angel Drive while her thoughts hollowed out all the unnecessary clutter. She saw only the distance between herself and her ally as she picked her light-as-air feet off the ground and bolted straight ahead as light.

One. Two. Three. It all came down to the tiniest increment of milliseconds possible. Kairi didn't feel the weight of her staff as she it into her right hand and took a swing towards empty air in front of Riku. Alex reappeared from the frozen time with his stomach right in the path of her staff.

Kairi's vision slowed to a crawl. She watched as Alex's gut contorted around her staff and his expression of ecstasy slowly vanished. Time resumed with the snap of Alex's bones and his body being flung hard into the wall behind him.

Kairi then stumbled up in front of Riku panting and low on breath. That was enough to make her break out in a sweat. It didn't take her long to catch her breath and, after putting her hand on her chest, she glared straight down at Alex as he tried to stand back up.

"You...!" He growled, no doubt just as surprised as Riku was to see her.

"Kairi, how did you...?"

Before Riku could finish Kairi thrust her staff towards Alex and proclaimed, "He won't have to face you alone any longer! I'm here too!"

She could hear Riku's breathing steadying and he managed to stabilize the powers of light and darkness back together. He stood back up and whispered to her, "Thank you Kairi..."

She turned her head back slightly to give him a reassuring nod. When she looked back Alex was standing up, hunched over, with his hands hovering out from the sides of his body. His body was consumed in flames and he muttered in a hollow, sadistic tone, "Doesn't matter to us. It just saves us the time to hunt you down and kill you too!"

Alex clapped his hands together and unleashed a tidal wave of flames upon the two of them. Kairi put her best foot forward and summoned a bubble of aura to protect them while Riku gathered up energy within his weapons.

"When you see an opening, take him down!" She proclaimed as the sweltering heat bore down through the gaps in her shield.

Alex charged the barrier and stabbed his sword into it. Kairi let out a mild yelp as the destroyer threw the rest of his body against the barrier and with one punch shattered it like glass.

Kairi swung her staff forward and bashed it against the front of Alex's face. She then whipped to the right and kicked him in the gut where she had gotten him earlier.

"Now!" Riku called at to back away and she did so with a hop while he vaulted over her and cut down Alex's shape with an "X" shaped out of light and darkness.

His slash vibrated the air and sent Alex hurtling back into the wall yet again with his blood dripping onto the ground. Right after Alex started to bounce off the wall Riku charged right in and pinned his arm against his neck to hold him in place.

Alex's eyes nearly popped out of his skull and he grit his teeth into a smarmy smile, "You...can never kill me..."

"You said it yourself...Everything comes to an end eventually..." Riku coldly withdrew his hand and cupped his katana in both of them. He raised it above his head with Alex's reflection glistening in the blade, "I'm just speeding up the process."

"Heh...heh...!" Alex panted for air as his body found itself soaked in blood. The Gaia Temporis was secretly clutched in his right hand, but no matter how many times he wiggled his fingers the stone didn't appear responsive.

"W-What?!" His gaze darted down at the stone in disbelief.

It seemed like the perfect end to the Phoenix of Destruction's rampage. A single stroke would prove to be the climax to his life and all the pain and misery he caused to others.

...And yet there was something that Kairi couldn't get out of her head. It had been stuck in there ever since she first met Alex Whiter...

"_You're that traitorous bitch's little sister...aren't you?"_

It was horrible to find out that such a malicious, ill-spoken creature had known her sister...But that was just the thing. He **knows**. As of now, Alex Whiter was the only lead Kairi had towards finding Shina.

What her mind was thinking was stupid, perhaps the stupidest thing she had ever considered doing. But her heart didn't care what her mind was thinking. Without time to think it through Kairi ran straight towards Riku and got in the way of him killing Alex with her arms outstretched.

"W-Wait!" She declared with her heart racing and the sharp feeling from Riku's blade touching her left cheek.

Riku looked down at her and gave her just a moment to explain herself, which she did as best she could.

"D-Don't kill him...Not yet!" She couldn't believe the words coming out of her mouth.

"...Well now, this is interesting..." Alex murmured behind her back.

"Kairi. Move." Riku's patience was thin and left her short on time to make her stance.

He was intimidating her with the glare her mother must've known only hours ago. Her heart felt ready to vacate her chest but she stared back into Riku's eyes and told him with a clear, concise tone of voice, "Alex Whiter is the only person who knows where my sister Shina is! I can't let you kill him until I get that information out of him!"

"..." Riku held his blade still for a little while longer and told her bluntly, "And you think he'd be willing to tell you?"

"Of course not!" Kairi barked back, "But I know some people. Whether its through technology or magic, I'll figure out some way to force that information out of him by any means necessary!"

She continued staring down Riku, backed by her determination. With little more than a sigh Riku lowered his katana and remarked, "...I'd be a hypocrite if I stopped you from following your heart."

"Alex won't be able to absorb energy from the ship. So as long as we bind him he shouldn't cause anymore trouble."

Kairi smiled and then instantly turned around and used her aura to wrap Alex's arms and legs together, turning him into a living mummy. The Phoenix squirmed and grit his teeth in defiance, barking out last remark of "You think this can hold us?! WE-" before Kairi slapped some aura over his mouth for good measure.

"That's enough out of you!" She yelled angrily. Of course, Alex would continue to fight his imprisonment, but at least she didn't have to hear his voice for a while.

"...Though, what are we going to do with him now?" She wondered aloud.

Riku returned to his regular form and tried to come up with an answer, though he didn't sound too certain about it, "I guess we could carry him with us. Though with Justek still in the picture..."

The entire ship started trembling and the suddenness of it nearly caused Kairi to fall down. As she grabbed onto the wall she felt cold, and lonesome, like all positivity had been drained right out of her body.

"What...is this feeling?" It was too horrific to describe with her words alone.

Riku's face started going pale and as he swerved his head towards their exit out of here he muttered the only word that'd fill Kairi with despair, "B-Brother...?"

Something...had gone horribly, _horribly_ wrong.

_Next Time: Last Eclipse_


	23. Chapter 22

**Chapter 22: Eclipse of the Heart**

For Mew, it certainly felt like he had reached the final stretch of the way in this grand Ark. There had been no more enemies, no more surprises, just one long staircase standing between him and the door at the top.

He ran up it with nothing else on his mind but what his encounter with Justek would be like. The conflicting reports on the man's character made it more enticing than it had before. But he could never forget that his opponent was going to be the toughest he'd ever faced in his life up until now. And that says a lot when comparing him to the reality-destroying leviathan, Gravitus, and Alex.

"_I was hoping I'd catch up with Kairi right around here...But I guess I'm riding solo for now!" _Somehow this didn't make him feel antsy, but excited. And before he knew it, time had flown by and he was already at the top of the stairs.

The last door had to be three times bigger than all the rest, of course. Justek certainly knew how to be overly dramatic in his presentations, Mew would give him that.

"_Lets see how your 'observation deck' stacks up as a final battleground..." _Mew curled a smile and laid one hand on the center of the door. The material retracted into the walls a little louder than the others had and beyond it lied...A room that wasn't really too different from the rest he had encountered so far.

Same old walls, same old floor, same old glowing lines. It was decently sized, probably the biggest room he had entered thus far, and there was a nice tainted window at the end of the room so anyone could see the Sun this close up and not get their eyeballs fried.

That the view outside was nothing BUT the Sun indicated the ship had been turned when Mew wasn't paying attention.

"_Yeah this is nice but...Not what I expected?" _Mew cautiously walked into the room and drew his eyes around it until he reached the center, _"I mean c'mon, a little black would've spruced the room up nicely!"_

Upon reaching the dead center of the room Mew paused, as he felt something odd below his feet. He backed up slightly and glared down at the floor. He swore he could make out a circular line in the floor that'd make a lift if fully formed.

"Oh, so this is just like...The last resting place," Mew crossed his arms and tapped his foot on the ground as he looked around some more, "No sign of Justek. I guess I just gotta wait for the others to catch up?"

In the middle of talking his shadow started to be projected in front of him, with a crimson light flaring up over his shoulders. Mew's glare tensed up and as a massive influx of heat came bearing down the back of his neck he spun around and drew his sword.

The familiar bulk of a certain Sun God's blade slammed into his sword and reverberated into his wrist, making it hard to grasp onto the blade. Mew grit his teeth and was hurtled back towards the window. No time for a snappy comeback, as there was someone preparing to ambush him from behind.

A silvery-haired goddess in ninja garb. Must be Lunis, Mew guessed. She readied a pair of knives to go straight for the back of his neck, but contrary to appearances Mew could be pretty nimble himself. He dispelled his sword and flipped over Lunis' mistimed attack, then used the window to repel himself straight over Solaris and land back in front of the door.

Only after he turned around was it time to talk smack to his opponent, "Y'know when ambushing someone you probably _shouldn't _be lit up like a disco ball on fire."

Solaris growled through his teeth and grabbed onto his shoulder as he rolled his arm around. Lunis walked up next to him, keeping her knives poised close to her body.

"Bah! Why'd it have to be **you**?!" Solaris yelled with immense disappointment, "Father said we'd be fighting someone tough, not this boisterous loud-mouth!"

"_I guess the loss to Alex didn't teach him anything..." _Mew gave the Sun God a smug smirk and halfway open stare, which only pissed him off further.

"What're you so happy about?!" Solaris proclaimed as a brief burst of fire came from his body.

"Oh nothing, nothing!" Mew laughed a little to himself as he drew his sword and swung it over his back, "So your father sent you two to test me before the big battle eh?"

"Yeah. We're gonna 'test' how quickly you fry up!" Solaris' comeback was admittedly, pretty good.

"I don't hate you...But you have to die here before you can get to father." Lunis remarked, tightening her grip around her knives and glaring at Mew with a somewhat trembling look in her eyes.

Mew's heart thumped against his chest and his head turned somewhat red without him realizing it. His smile got a bit wobbly and he had a little trouble speaking because of it.

"I don't get why Kairi called you an ugly vixen. You look very pretty to me Lunis." Yet somehow Mew's tone of voice came across as smooth and confident, as Lunis' pupils immediately shrank and she quietly babbled out a bunch of incoherent noise.

Solaris put a kibosh on that by turning the fire around his body up and exclaiming with a fist clenching against his chest, "Hey! Hey! HEY! Don't you go fucking hitting on my sister you dickbag!"

"B-Brother its fine..." Lunis muttered with her cheeks rosy red. Solaris swung his head towards her then back at Mew with teeth snarling and his neck stretched out as far as it could go.

"Oh absolutely not this bastard's gonna fry extra hard now!"

"Hehehe...!" Mew chuckled.

"What NOW?!" Solaris barked in severe annoyance.

"Its just really funny seeing you two act like...actual siblings," Mew gave them a genuine smile and said to them, "You're one close family, aren't ya?"

Solaris ruffled his lips and said as he pulled back a bit, "Y-Yeah. No shit! What's it to ya?!"

"This is pretty bold of me to say but...I bet you wouldn't be such bad guys if you weren't trying so hard to make your father happy."

His words seemed to make Lunis take a moment to look away and think to herself, but Solaris wasn't hesitant to tell Mew, "You don't know shit about us!"

"If we were friends I would." Mew said. No sarcasm. No laughter or anything of the sort.

He then shrugged his sword off his shoulder and pointed it at both his opponents with an iron-clad look of determination on his face, "Oh well, this ain't the time for what-ifs."

He clicked down on the white trigger to go into Light Form, swiping his katana down before the light subsided while spreading his wings to their full breadth.

"Someone's gonna see your father, and I hate to say it but it ain't gonna be you guys."

Solaris and Lunis froze up for a moment, then glanced at each other. With a subtle nod of the head they then looked back at Mew with fiery eyes and weapons locked in their hands.

"Finally, no more small talk! You're going down!" Solaris declared.

"We will defeat you." Lunis added her part.

Two Prime Deities stood in the way of Mew and the ultimate enemy. If nothing else, Justek wasn't making it an easy test for him to pass.

"Fighting two gods at the same time? Sounds like even odds to me!" Mew proclaimed with a smirk.

Lunis ran so fast that she vanished from sight while Solaris barreled towards Mew and tried attacking him from the left. Mew crossed his arms and blocked Solaris' swing with his katana while summoning a second sword made of light to keep Lunis' knives at bay. Pinched between the might of these two opponents, Mew's heart raced like never before...

**VS. THE PRIME DEITIES OF THE MOON AND SUN: LUNIS AND SOLARIS**

He whipped his arms across the breadth of his chest and slashed the air on both sides with a serene gale. Lunis and Solaris were pushed aside and Mew eyed the Sun God first.

"_I know what you're capable of. Better take you down first!" _He locked his katana into the sheath and swiped his hand out to draw a line in the air with light. Hundred of tiny needles went flying out to Solaris like a stream of stardust.

Solaris waved his sword at the needles to burn them down and send the heat flying at Mew, who glided around it and drew his sword in one quick stroke to strike his foe's armored thigh.

Mew turned and backed off. Solaris swung his sword out like an ogre's club and Mew found his katana forced to his neck when he tried to repel it. Solaris kept swinging it around to raise a tornado of heat around him. Then he grasped the blade in both hands over his head and lashed it down.

A wave of volcanic ash sliced through the ground on its way to Mew, who sweated from close contact even having moved out of its way.

He drew his blade towards the fire to heat it up, only for his eyes to dart to the left as he felt the air pressing at his face. The pressure came from Lunis' feet the second before she dived into him with a kick that pushed him into the path of the flames.

"_Ghhh...! Hot hot hot!" _Mew complained mildly as one wing was shoved into his body and the feathers quickly looking like they'd taken a dip in ash.

Mew diverted some light to his wings to shield them from the heat and then readied his sword in the sheath. As Solaris continued putting on the pressure Mew widened his eyes and rocketed forth in one quick burst of speed. The drawn katana whipped up the length of Solaris' sword and forced some light past it into his face.

The Sun God reacted like he got some dust in his eyes and rubbed his face with the back of his left hand. Mew hopped and drew his blade behind his neck. He had to take a raincheck when he could see Lunis coming in fast from the corner of his eyes.

He dropped right down and turned to engage the Lunar Goddess in a brief dance of blades. She locked one knife around the middle of his katana and held it down tighter than her lithe arms suggested her capable of doing.

She tried to force the blade to the ground, where pressure forced it into a slant. She then stepped down hard on it with one foot and Mew found the handle slipping out of his grasp.

She hopped right off the blade and drove a knee straight up to his face. She was quick, but not enough to get one over on Mew. Mew grinned and grabbed her knee in hand and pushed her off. She flipped away and darted at him the moment she landed.

She stayed low to the ground and made two quick swipes at Mew's kneecaps to try and cut through the armor. Mew hopped over the first attempt and landed his tip-toes onto her knives on the second attempt. He playfully waved down at her grumpy face before hopping back...

Only to meet with the wall behind him.

"Whoops." Mew quickly spat out before finding Lunis drawing her blades towards his neck. He hastily grabbed her by the wrists to keep her back but being partially pinned to a wall wasn't exactly the best place for him to hold his ground.

He managed to somewhat pulled her arms apart, the way she was trembling showing that she wouldn't let up easily. Judging from the ferocity of her glare she was clearly cross with him but Mew didn't quite know why.

"What haven't you ever gotten a compliment on your looks before?" He asked.

"Your face...!" She growled back, her eyes widening even fiercer as she suddenly yelled, "I hate that face of yours!"

Mew immediately shifted blame to the obvious culprit, _"Damn Riku what'd you say to get her so pissed off?"_

"Lunis, get out of the way! He's mine!" Solaris yelled as he stood a fair distance behind his sibling with sword burning bright over his head.

Lunis gave a brief nod and started slipping away right as Solaris dragged his sword down and sent a roaring wave of fire towards Mew.

Mew used some quick thinking to pin his back to the wall and shove his legs up into Lunis' gut. The brief gasp of air she let out weakened her grip and allowed Mew to slide her knives out of her hands before she retreated.

The bright crimson flames reflected in his eyes as he ran to the left and glanced at the knives in his hands with a rather curious look, _"...Ok now what do I do with these?" _

Solaris assaulted him with similarly large waves of flame that rocked the room on making contact with the wall. Mew glanced at his two opponents standing side-by-side and got an idea.

"_Ok, so first I'll throw these at Solaris' head..." _He stopped in place before the window and flicked the knives out the moment he turned to his foes. They darted through the air like arrows and the Sun God flinched, which in turn stopped his flames.

"_And then-" _Mew reached for his katana with a confident smirk. But then the knives were snatched out of the air by Lunis. Which, given there was a Lunis still standing next to her brother, was a shock to the system.

"_Wait, you weren't supposed to do that!" _The surprise threw off Mew's concentration and the copy of Lunis took full advantage to run in and stab one of the knives down into Mew's right shoulder.

Mew drew his katana at the copy's gut and immense pain speared up into his brain. The copy was dispersed in one attack...And another of Solaris' waves of flame was barreling towards him behind it.

"Ah dang it..." Mew cursed himself as the flames slammed him against the wall and pressed his arms back, which only deepened the knife's wound.

The flames didn't last for long, fortunately. But the scorching sensation along his body most certainly persisted afterwards. Mew dropped to the floor with one knee going down but had a big smile on his face.

"_So these are the kind of opponents the others had to deal with..." _Mew curled his right fist and punched the ground before standing right back up and laying that arm over his chest, while the other ripped the melting knife free from his skin.

"_Alright..." _Mew licked around his lips to wet them after Solaris left them dry, then popped them together. He motioned his right hand towards his katana and kept a steady eye towards his opponents. His vision also briefly blurred following his head throbbing.

"_Solaris' trying to concentrate his attacks on me instead of going wild like he did with Alex. So that means him and Lunis __**can **__hurt each other. And Lunis can create copies of herself that fall in one hit, but are just as fast and strong as she is. So how am I supposed to tell them apart?"_

"What's wrong? You chickening out already?!" Solaris boasted as he effortlessly swung his sword around above his head and planted it in the floor to his left.

Mew closed his eyes and took in a very deep breath. The pain in his shoulder relaxed just enough for him to think straight...And come up with a witty comeback.

"Says the guy who turned tail and ran from Alex!"

Solaris' face twisted up in anger and he ignited his blade on the spot, "Y-You cocky...! I'll run you down!"

"Brother don't! This is just what they do!" Lunis extended a hand and managed to be the calm to Solaris' storm. She turned to Mew and indirectly insulted him, "They think talking you down is a replacement for strength..."

Mew widened his eyes and zipped on over to the two in the blink of an eye. He rammed his left knee into Lunis' gut to shove her back and said, "Nah!"

He then whipped his lightened katana from the sheath to give her a wave of light to deal with too, "But it makes for a good distraction!"

She held it back with just her knives but was temporarily out of the way. Mew continued to spin and built up momentum for another attack. Solaris got over the surprise and dragged his sword along the ground on an upward swing for Mew's body.

Mew fired off faster and cut across Solaris' chest with all his might, putting a skin-deep scar into his armor. The light unleashed cut Mew off from the look of anger the Sun God's grunting implied he had.

"_Not done yet!" _Mew flipped his blade around and swung back down to send another wave of light out. Its path was diverted when he was tackled from the left by one of Lunis' copies, who promptly stabbed her knives into his back and abdomen.

That hurt a lot more than the shoulder did, but it was still easy to throw the copy off with a hard flip that ended with Mew back on his feet. The clone took to the ceiling and dove down tossing their knives ahead of them. Mew raised his katana but the curvature of their blades allowed them to latch on and spin around the blade.

The copy grabbed the handles of the knives and bent down, dragging Mew's blade and upper body down with her. Mew knew of the real goddess' approach by the sound of his light shattering like glass behind him. With his back fully exposed it'd be easier and more deadly to stab him now.

But instead of taking the blow like some masochist he dispelled his sword and threw his full weight into headbutting the clone. While his brain shook in his skull he hopped off the ground and thrust both his legs back to hit Lunis in the face before her knives came anywhere close.

He dropped but couldn't be stopped with Solaris breathing down his neck like a dragon. The Sun God's latest assault came in the form of a straightforward fireball lobbed through the air. Though "straightforward" from him still meant "dangerous" for Mew, and he promptly rolled out of the way of it and the ensuing pillar of flame.

Then he got right back up and hopped away from Lunis' slicing hard towards his neck. Another Lunis hopped onto that one's back and vaulted straight at Mew, using their elbow to clock him in the neck and then vanishing so another copy could follow through in their place.

Mew coughed up vapidly and his vision blurred for longer than it had before. He drew his hand up and with one rough wave down summoned light to block one of Lunis' knives. The copy took their other one and got around his defenses with the help of their long arms.

Mew bit his teeth and glided a little to the left to keep the blade away from his face. Another Lunis ran up to the left of him and sliced through the tendons of his thigh with both knives. Mew found himself starting to kneel against his will and was forced to start levitating to keep up the fight.

He then glanced back and saw he was being pushed towards the wall again. He bit his teeth down and whispered out, "Not gonna happen twice..."

It was going to be a risky way to get out, but what else was new for him? He gathered energy throughout his entire body and then waited for one of the Lunis' to attack him. Right as the blades' tips reflected in his eyes he widened them up and tackled straight through the multiple copies.

Three went away, one hit the floor on their shoulder blades and slid towards Mew.

"Gotcha!" Mew turned and prepared to strike when he found his skull grappled between the hot rocky fingers of Solaris.

"No! Got...YOU!" He roared before turning around and tossing Mew right into the wall.

"RAAAHHH!" He bellowed as he took a swing at the ground with the tip of his blade, sending a hot magma tidal wave after Mew.

Mew floated upright but hit his back on the wall, flaring up the dulling pain. While he grimaced he looked at the incoming attack and went "Hooo boy..." before going right for his katana.

With no light at his beckoning he sliced through the center of the magma and flew past it, tucking his wings in just to be safe. He then ducked down and barreled straight into Solaris shoulder first. The pain continued to flare up but he wasn't going to back down until he had the Sun God against the wall.

The crunch of cracking rock off his back was as good a sign of success as any, and Mew immediately backed off while assailing Solaris with a few slicing waves of light. The Sun God took the attacks on in stride and responded by whipping his right arm out to blast Mew with a plume of hot ash.

Mew thrust his wings in front to cut back most of the damage. He then poked them open slightly and remarked, "You really are a berserker..."

Lunis dove at him and tackled him out of the air. She wrapped his arms around his waist and spun around so her feet would hit the wall and allow her to spring forward, adding to the time the pressure on Mew's back would be applied.

When Mew showed signs of resistance Lunis willingly had another copy dive onto her back to reapply the pressure. So much friction upon the wound reopened it and Mew could feel the blood draining faster than he'd care to admit.

"Ok, time for you to get off!" Mew exclaimed as he carelessly put his hands up to her chest and struck her with a blast of light.

Lunis disappeared. Yet another copy. Mew promptly stood up and thought to himself, _"Hoi boy this is getting ridiculous..." _

He needed to get some space to figure out the trick to Lunis' copies. But Solaris wasn't going to make that easy. Mew looked down and saw the long streak of blood on the floor and realized his body was taking a lot of damage.

"_This is going to be a risky gambit. I can't waste a second..." _Mew grit his teeth and saw two Lunis' running at him close to the ground. They zipped back and forth to mesmerize him and make it harder to react.

But Mew wasn't planning to meet their challenge. He rushed straight between them and held his katana down in one hand, a blade of pure light in the other, deflecting their attacks. He then spun around and thrust the swords like javelins as the copies turned around. One copy widened their eyes and used their knives to catch the katana before it hit their face, exposing themselves as the real deal.

Mew continued to spin and faced Solaris, who raised his blade for another attack. "Perfect!" Mew whispered with a smirk. He recalled his katana into his right hand and raised the left hand at the Sun God.

For a brief moment he returned to his regular form, which caused the wounds on his body to grow slightly and release more pain across his nerves. He bit his teeth and flung a large ball of pure gasoline from his palm and into the flames.

"_Please work!" _Mew prayed as the liquid touched flame and, unsurprisingly, turned into a grand explosion that knocked Solaris off his feet and onto his side.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" He yelled, the landing chipping off a good bit of his armor in the process.

Mew couldn't celebrate yet. He flicked the white trigger to return to Light Form and hastily drew his katana to the right to block Lunis' slice. The Goddess kept the pressure on with fleet footwork and an agile use of her knives.

Mew counted a dozen attacks coming from her in a second. She was definitely faster than he was but as she was clearly built for assassination, it made her choice of targets easy to pick out. Mew twirled his blade around to block the strikes on his neck and stomach. But he had little way of keeping her from sending a clone after his back.

But that's fine. That was JUST what he wanted.

With a dry smirk Mew whipped to the right and brushed the copy's face with one of his wings. The copy rose to slice towards the side of Mew's body but he hopped back and took to the air. He gathered light in his right hand but did not fire it. Instead, he raised it above his head and created a harmless flashbang.

Both Lunis' covered their eyes immediately and Mew took the opportunity to try and deduce the clones' tell sign, _"C'mon Mew...Kairi must have pieced it together, so you can too!" _

The answer to this conundrum stuck out to Mew like, funny enough, a shadow. For it was Lunis' shadows, or to be precise, the clone's thinner one, that exposed the truth.

Mew gripped hold of his katana in both hands and with a hearty chuckle dove straight down at the real Lunis. The goddess sure looked surprised when she finally got to open her eyes again only to find Mew inches away from her.

Mew put a ton of energy into his blade and slashed it up over Lunis' entire body, knocking her into the air. Mew landed and hopped right up after her. He put his blade back in the sheath and lashed it out, bombarding the goddess with a series of slashes that led her back to the ground.

She had a surprising degree of mental fortitude consider she called up a clone during all that to catch her from hitting the floor. The clone then turned and took the remainder of the attacks for her before vanishing.

Lunis was sweating a bit following the assault, and turned her her back with an angry glare at Mew. Though it wasn't clear from the minimal scars on the goddess' skin, Mew was still dealing damage. He just didn't want to kill them or anything like that.

"_If only the feeling was mutual..." _Mew let out a sigh and kept his blade up in defense while looking back to find Solaris standing up.

"Grrr...Feh! You alright Lunis?!" He was quick to ask.

"I'm fine. You?" She responded.

"Pissed off but fine otherwise! I think its time we finally fried this angel-winged bastard, huh?!"

"Yes. For father!"

"For father!" Solaris started off by igniting his blade and drawing it back over his shoulder like he was readying to spear a fish out of water.

Mew was a tad curious to see what they were planning, but common sense told him to go after Lunis before she could slip away. He dove down and she turned and blocked his katana swing with her knives crossed.

Mew backed off and slashed his blade out a few times to keep her on the defensive while readying his blade back in the sheath. Mew glanced left and right and saw copies four copies surrounding him. With his blade ignited at all times he could pick out the real Lunis from these fakes.

"Heh..." He smiled and prepared his decisive strike. Eight rings rung in unison like church bells at noon and he looked around to find the copies had put their knives into eight corners surrounding Mew.

The real Lunis darted to the southeast knife and left behind a silver streak in her wake. Mew swung his blade out to intercept her with a wave of light but she ducked by unperturbed. Mew grit his teeth and turned around as Lunis darted for the west knife.

He turned around again and she was off to the northeast corner. She was moving too fast for him to get a bead on so he tried to make his escape. He hopped back but a violent, restraining shock spread through his body upon touching a barrier of light from the streak.

Lunis finished the eight-pointed seal with Mew caught in the center right as Solaris had charged up his sword to maximum power. Lunis flipped through the air and lingered over Mew just long enough to stick her tongue out at him, which was an unexpected bit of playfulness on her part.

Mew turned around and saw no feasible way of escaping this trap before the sword was tossed. He just had to stand his ground and throw his arms up to try and catch it. But this wasn't just a normal sword anymore. Solaris turned that chunk of rock into a violently spinning drill that erupted out solar flares as it tore through the air towards Mew.

Mew widened his eyes and slowly crossed his arms against the chest. The drill ripped through the barriers and rammed into his arms. Mew put everything he got into preventing a big gaping hole through his body. He felt his exertion drawing out the laughter of the demon in his head, which persisted while the drill slammed him against the back wall.

A dark round singe mark laid upon his skin as Solaris recalled his slowing sword and Lunis took up the slack. With the help of a few copies Lunis ran up and jumped forward, ramming their knees into the bleeding wound on Mew's gut to keep him pinned down.

The room trembled throughout as Solaris got a hold of his blade and dragged a maelstrom of flames right out of it. He braced his shaking feet against the ground and thrust the weapon over his head, tightening his teeth as tight as they could go.

Mew was feeling dizzy and could barely see what was going on. But he DID hear Solaris yelling at Lunis to back away, and she did so with a final gift: A series of knives to his wings to nail him to the wall.

When the two siblings were reunited they stood back-to-back and drew their weapons out at Mew.

"You stood too close to the sun!"

"Now fall under the light of the full moon!"

Lunis cut her knives out in a wide "X" of silver and when Solaris unleashed the wrath of his flames they touched that scar and turned to silver.

"DOMINANT ECLIPSE!" They yelled as the flames hurtled into Mew's helpless body and roasted him whole.

Mew grit his teeth and sweated like mad. The flames roared in his ears until his eardrums started to pop. Facing down the full might of the two's combined attack would take every bit of grit, heart and resolve he could muster, along with every bit of fiber of his being working together to stave off the scorching threat of death.

It took seconds for him to no longer feel his skin. A few more for the armor to start melting into his muscles. The whole time through he had to keep telling himself to "Live", "Live", "LIVE!"

And perhaps it was through that powerful desire to survive that he managed to just barely make it through the flames. When he fell to the ground his molting wings were pinned down by the liquid metal that remained of Lunis' knives. He instinctively put his hands and knees on the ground but the nerves were so tender that agonizing pain flooded his vision with a flash of red.

He could breathe, but a lot of the air he exhaled had been replaced with smoke. The two Prime Deities looked like a silver and red speck from this far away. But their voices were loud and clear.

"Son of a bitch...! He's still standing!" Solaris barked in annoyance.

"Heh...That...was a pretty cool combination attack..." Mew had to give credit where it was due.

"_Hehehehe...!" _"D." laughing in his mind blended in with the words coming from his opponents.

"Yeah! Cause when it comes to fighting we're a pair that can't be beat!"

"_You've had your fun...Now let me take a whack at these two upstarts!" _The demon exclaimed with some lucidity in his voice.

"You fought hard Mew, but this is where it ends." Lunis replied with a mild bit of sympathy present in her voice.

Mew rolled out his best smile and shook his head while "D." continued to pester him in the back of his mind, _"DO IT! Let your emotions run wild!"_

"Yeah...It was a pretty fun fight. When...when this is over...We oughta have a rematch...for fun..." Mew opened his right hand and summoned his katana, with a thumb perfectly positioned near the black trigger.

"You're still gonna fight?! You lost! Its over!" Solaris exclaimed.

Mew's smile widened and he could feel his heart resume with a loud, thunderous "Thump!"

"Over? Nah, its not over..." He swung his head up and clicked the black trigger. The black, charbroiled rings around his eyes greatly emphasized the hollow yellow that shone in his irises, while his smile remained as positive as ever.

"You haven't even gotten to see OUR combination attack!" Faster than Mew could breath the deep burnt mark across his body healed up, with his arms and legs becoming coated with solidified darkness. The rest of the feathers molted off his back and the remaining bones crunched down into a more demonic shape, upon which darkness spread over them like a thin membrane. Mew's sword faded into ether and he spread his renewed palm along the ground to help him stand.

"_...Hmph, fine. I suppose this will do for now..." _"D." begrudgingly accepting his lot in life made Mew happier than he cared to admit.

The confidence on his opponent's faces quickly turned to horror, with Lunis' in particular looking paler by the second.

"N-No..." She clutched her arms together under her chest and took a firm step back, swaying around with a face of pure revulsion.

"N-Not you again...! Not you again!"

"S-Shit...!" Solaris faced his sister and could barely muster up the strength to call out to her, "K-Keep it together Lunis! This...this is our chance at payback!"

Mew opened his eyes slightly and was a little confused by what was going on. It didn't take a genius to guess "D." had done something to them in the past nor did it take those same smarts to realize that this was as good an opening as any, even if it was a little nasty of Mew to do so.

He sped right in faster than they could blink and threw a hard punch into Lunis' gut. The goddess, weakened by her returning nightmares, spat up a lot of air before being flung back into the wall. Her body bounced off and she weakly let out a gasp before collapsing onto the floor, completely unconscious.

"Lunis! LUNIS!" Solaris shouted her name out in a panic.

"Don't worry, I just knocked her out she'll be fine." Mew said in a calm voice. Sadly, he could **not** be the calm to Solaris' storm.

"You...! YOU!" A burst of flame erupted from Solaris' body that shoved Mew a good ten feet back. Mew grit his teeth as the flames around Solaris' body grew brighter and started to shift from red to blue.

The Sun God stretched his arms down by the hips and reared his head back to let out an anguished roar. The air shook violently and Mew could barely make out whatever the heck was going on with Solaris. His armor started to break down, revealing a set of hard sapphire dragon scales underneath all that hardened magma. The cracks in his sword start spewing blue fire every second, and bits of actual reptilian scales started crawling up the sides of his neck.

When Solaris threw his head forward his eyes were a lot more bloodshot with a bit of yellow in the sclera, while his hair and eyes had gained an azure coloring. His pupils shrank down into slits as he stared at Mew and bellowed with a furious echo in his voice, "YOU'RE GOING TO DIE THIS TIME, DEMON!"

"What the fu-"

Solaris charged in and smashed his scaly fist into Mew's jaw. The snap of Mew's bones followed him being sent into a spiral through the air. Mew shook his head and dropped straight to the ground.

"_Ok no time for guessing around! Sun boy's gotten a lot tougher now!" _He spread his arms and collapsed the darkness around into a pair of flame balls then slapped them together to launch a giant beam of black flames at Solaris.

Solaris stood stone-cold against the flames and walked into them, starting with a stroll before breaking into a run that left a trail of blue flames in his wake. He tackled Mew through his flames and shoved his shoulder into his neck until pinning him to the wall.

He then drew his sword and went straight for the decapitating blow. Mew quickly thrust a fist into a dark rift and had it emerge beside Solaris' face after building up enough momentum for a good punch. The Sun God let out a grunt as he stumbled away from Mew.

Mew jumped the Sun God upon landing and grabbed him by the face. The heat of his flames melted through the darkness in seconds, and Mew could see his draconic eye glaring him down through his fingers.

Mew pooled all his strength into forcing Solaris off his feet and slamming him into the ground. Where Solaris then took the blunt edge of his blade and rammed it into Mew's gut, blasting him three times with explosions.

Mew pushed off and whipped his arm back with darkness being channeled into an orb. Solaris wasted no time using an explosion to propel himself in the air and dive down at Mew, his side firing at full throttle.

The quaking air didn't dissuade Mew's aim. He thrust the dark orb into Solaris' gut and it dragged him into the ceiling, twisting him around the whole way up.

Even that didn't put much of a dent in the Sun God's armor.

"_Seriously where was this when he was fighting Alex?!" _Mew widened his eyes and stretched multiple limbs out to pound Solaris through a volley of fists. Each hammering blow worked away at his armor for a little while.

Solaris roared and blue flames expanded around his body like a miniature sun, disintegrating most of the darkness that assailed him. Mew snapped his actual arms back and shook the smoke off. When the sun had grown to twice Solaris' body mass he pulled back and smacked it down with his sword.

Mew dashed to the right and hopped over the shockwaves when the sun landed. He then threw one arm up at the Sun God and pulled himself closer, delivering a kick to his gut with both his legs.

Solaris grunted slightly and then paid Mew for his folly by grabbing his head in both hands and holding on tight. Mew could hear his bones cracking. Solaris bashed his head into Mew's a couple times, drawing blood after the second blow. He then cupped his left hand around the back of his skull and slammed his head down one more time to drive him towards the ground.

Shaken, but not broken, Mew landed on the ground and staggered around slightly. The rapid descent of the Sun God's shadow warranted a swift retreat. Solaris' impact released a massive explosion that Mew barely had time to guard against.

Solaris flung himself out of it and clocked Mew in the neck with the length of his arm. Mew lost a little air and held on as the Sun God flung him around and then tossed him towards the sky.

Solaris then swung his sword over his head and gathered flames. His sword was cracking apart, barely able to contain the power he fed it. Mew shook his head, wiped the bottom of his chin and was ready to brave the attack with a smile.

He charged down, only to find a tug holding him back. He glanced over his shoulder and saw another miniature sun forming. This one rapidly sucked in the air as it expanded, and even Mew couldn't outpace its growth with his speed.

He grit his teeth as he was sucked right into the sun, where it became difficult to tell what Solaris was going to do.

The Sun God clenched his teeth and his eyes were filled with fire. He tightened the grip around his blade and the whole room felt like it'd split in two.

"DIE!" Solaris exclaimed as he cleaved his blade diagonally towards the miniature sun, the sheer force of his swing manifesting as a blue flame dragon chomping through the sun in one bite, "HYPERNOVA SLASHER!"

The cracked sun burst open and filled half the room with a string of bright explosions, with Mew feeling the sting of every single one on his way to the ground. He hit the floor on his shoulder and tumbled around covered in smoke.

Solaris hung his head forward and panted out a few huffs of fire in triumph, "Take...that...!"

"Urrghh..." Mew grumbled and his arms flopped onto the ground like he was ready to take a nap. With Solaris looking at him all dumbfounded Mew jumped back onto his feet looking no worse for the wear.

He did grab the side of his head and rattle it around a bit, but once he looked back at the Sun God he smiled and told him, "Ok, that hurt a bit..."

Solaris wobbled and flung himself at Mew roaring with rage and anguish, "WHY WON'T YOU FALL?!"

Mew stood there looking all peaceful only to spring a fist square onto Solaris' face the next second, drawing blood from the nose.

"You just aren't getting it Solaris!" He proclaimed as he kept the assault going by smashing his fists into the Sun God's gut, chest, and jaw in quick succession. Each hammering blow shaking the room.

"There ain't nothing wrong with fighting for your family!" When it appeared Solaris would land Mew raised his punches up and struck him with a volley to suspend him in the air.

"But I'm not just fighting for the sake of my own family! This battle's for my friends, and the world I live in!" Mew smashed Solaris' face with a right hook, then a left hook, holding back ever-slightly to keep his neck from snapping.

"So when it comes to whose resolve is stronger...!" Mew snatched Solaris out of the air by the face and pounded him into the floor like a stubborn nail. He then lorded over him with gritted teeth and a confident smirk.

"You're tough...But I'm just that extra bit tougher!" Mew finished his assault off by gathering plenty of darkness into his palm and pounding Solaris' face point-blank.

No matter how tough the Sun God was, his endurance couldn't keep up with such a blow to the noggin. Mew withdrew his hand and saw Solaris' eyes already beginning to close. Gritting his teeth to the bitter end, the Sun God seemed to shed a tear as he muttered in pain, "F-Father...I wasn't...strong enough..."

And then his eyes shut, and his head fell to its side. The changes to his body went away, and for once he had no choice but to be quiet.

Mew took his victory over the two Prime Deities as an excuse to finally let out the breath he'd been holding in for the past few minutes. With one exhausting gasp he dropped to his knees, exited Dark Form, and leaning his head back to gaze up at the ceiling.

"Can't believe I pulled it off by myself...I was really worried for a second there!" He smiled without realizing it. But he sure as hell wasn't going to stop himself.

The humble pie was served in the form of a click and hiss coming from the center of the room. Mew slowly looked down and watched as a platform fit for four levitate independently from the rest of the floor. It let out a soft, inviting whir.

Mew rose to his feet and heard nothing. Even after that big fight his comrades didn't appear to be close to arriving. He COULD wait it out, which would be the wisest move...

"But..." Thinking about what he had thought so far, something was telling him that it wouldn't do him any harm to be the first to meet Justek. By the time the others will have arrived, it was doubtful that he'd get a chance to talk to the man personally.

"...Its now or never." Mew clutched his fists and walked towards the platform. When he arrived at the center, it immediately began its descent. There was absolutely, positively, no going back now...

_Next Time: Whatever the Cost_


	24. Chapter 23

**Chapter 23: Justek I: The Man in Gray**

Mew stuck to the center of the lift and patiently tapped his left foot on the ground. The white walls of the ship left his sight in seconds as he arrived at the real observation deck. He got a good long look at the surface of the sun straight ahead before registering that he should have gone blind.

There was no heat. There was no cold. The atmosphere couldn't be described in terms of degrees or moods. Silent, just like his mind, was the air surrounding him.

He walked to the bare edge of the lift and looked down to find the ground was patterned like the rest of the floor. A grid of squares with inch thick lines separating each one formed a round arena whose edge Mew couldn't see entirely.

But he could see the bottom of the ship behind him. It made it possible to tell that this part was contained within glass. Very, VERY strong glass at that, if it could hold back the heat of a Sun, even after it had been dulled.

Mew felt a jolt up his legs as the lift came to a sudden, rickety stop at the bottom. The platform locked into place with a soft hiss, and Mew hopped right off not a moment later.

His heart was pounding with excitement towards the inevitable climax that lied ahead. His eyes were wide and he smiled without feeling it at first.

"_Alright Justek, where are you...?" _What Mew expected to become a game of hide-and-seek wound up being as simple as looking straight ahead.

Mew was reminded of his first encounter with Gravitus when he saw a tall man standing before him wearing a long, gray, silky cape over his shoulders and around the back of his body. His hair, dry and shaggy, blended in a bit with the tip-top of his cape.

Mew's heart stopped for a moment, then started back up racing like he was on the run from a predator. He tightened his fists by his sides and took one step forward, a bead of sweat dangling off his cheek.

"Yo! You're Justek right?!" He yelled out, with the man immediately responding with a slight turn of the cheek and a smirk forming on it.

"Who else could it be?" The man spoke with a mild accent and a playful bit of prodding towards his guest.

"..." Mew looked at the man's face and saw human skin, albeit wrinkled from age. This was a man that made even Auris scared, and yet...

"I don't know, I guess I was expecting..."

"A monster?" The man gave a scarily timely response and a daft chuckle soon followed. With just a couple steps he turned himself all the way around and looked straight into Mew's eyes with his half-shut green eyes hidden behind a set of tiny lens glasses.

Worn down chrome plated armor protected his upper body while grieves protected him from knee to foot, covered by four rows of tiny fangs. A musky green robe with rose red rims was laid over his armor while a bit of diamond chain mail could be seen near the neck of his armor, offering further protection underneath.

The skin of his hands was roughed up more than the rest, looking a lot like inner bark. His right hand grasped a bo-staff as long as he was tall. It was made of solid sapphire gemstone save for the ends, which had a rough black stone like onyx.

The only thing imposing about the man was his height. He was a whole half-foot taller than Mew. Otherwise, he just looked...tired.

"I wouldn't so hastily discard any preconceptions you had towards me, _Phoenix of Rebirth_." The man's voice took on a stern tone for just a brief moment yet that was enough to litter Mew's arms with goosebumps.

Yet he took to smiling immediately after as he said to Mew, "Though we know each others' names I'm hardly one to skip formalities. As you're the guest of honor, I'll let you go first."

"Uhhhh..." Mew had to take a step back and think to himself, _"He really is polite. Huh..." _

"My name's Mew, Elemental Overlord!" He responded with.

"And I am Justek Arcavira, the Betrayer. It has been a long time since I've spoken to one like you," Justek opened his eyes more poignantly and turned a glare unto Mew's face, "But I wish it would have been an eternity before I ever had to be in your presence again, 'D.'"

The demon crept closer to the front of Mew's mind and started filling the empty space with his rancorous laughter, _"Oh I feel the opposite, little beast..."_

Mew's eyes darted to his forehead then back towards Justek in confusion. He was caught between some rather dull aggression from Justek and the glee from "D." and all he could say was, "You two...got history with each other or something?"

"_You could say that I'm sort of...the most important figure in his life." _

"It is hardly worth any time to explain."

Two very different replies, and the best Mew could come up with in response was a long-winded sigh and murmur of, "Yeeeeah, small black and ugly's a real pain in the ass isn't he?"

"Such is the case for all parasites without a cure." Justek said with an idle smile.

"Don't have to tell me twice!" Mew chuckled once, then slowly blinked a few times. He harshly shook his head and then slapped the sides of his face.

"_Doh! I'm letting myself fall for his polite act! Focus Mew!" _

"Hahaha." Mew froze up and looked straight ahead to find his foe curling the the back of his knuckles up against his chin and chuckling.

"Heeeeey..." Mew propped himself upright and locked his arms up against his chest.

Justek straightened himself out and remarked in a rather throwaway manner, "Pardon the rudeness I just felt a little...nostalgic just now."

"Huh?" Mew tilted his head with mouth agape for a moment, then straightened it back up to mutter, "O...kay?"

Mew then turned to his side and hastily said to Justek, "I'm just going to come out and ask it...Are you evil, Justek?"

Justek cocked a middling smile and remarked, "What do **you** define as evil, Mew?"

"Well..." Mew pulled his head back slightly to give it a little thought, "You're evil if you threaten to hurt innocent people."

He then lowered his head with a hard, affirmative nod, "That's the best way I can put it."

Justek took a hand to his chest and bellowed almost out of a sense of pride in his words, "Then I AM evil, through and through."

"Hrrrmmm..." Mew started to raise his fists and kept his eyes locked onto the man, his voice turning more firm and serious, "Then you do plan to end everything, just like Auris said."

"I am the end, but the end of what? Have you managed to parse it down to the finest details?" Justek said, speaking about as clearly as a Sphinx.

"All I know about you is your name and your face. Nothing you've done has lined up so far..."

"A mystery is dull without a little misdirection. A trail of breadcrumbs spread across multiple directions has nevertheless brought you to me before the rest." Maybe Mew was just overthinking it, but it sounded like Justek was _praising_ him.

But he wasn't buying it for a second, "Yeah but...that's only because you split us up."

"Is it?" Justek poked the rim of his glasses to put them back into place and a smile crossed his face, "Your actions have always been unclouded by hesitation. Even knowing the threat I entailed you chose to come to me first and foremost and talk to me eye-to-eye."

"Life takes you through many routes, and some may even get you where you want to go faster than the rest...But there is something to be said about taking the straight path forward."

"Justek..."

"Yes, Mew?" Justek replied with a hearty, mild-mannered chuckle.

Mew raised a clenched, shaking fist before his chest and stared the man straight in the eyes, "I don't normally believe in destiny, or fate, or anything like that. People choose how their life unfolds. There is no higher power guiding us..."

"And yet..." Mew steadied his fist and slanted his eyes towards Justek, "This time I feel another power's hand in all this. Like I was meant to be here facing you head-on. I don't know what your plan is, or how powerful you really are...But I already decided long ago that I'd fight you with everything I've got to protect the people and home I've come to care about!"

Justek's eyes widened as the frighteningly dim colors of his face turned even paler. With a subtle budge of the head downward he cast a smirk towards Mew, leaving the boy paused with confusion.

"As I said before, pay me no heed...It is merely another crippling bout of nostalgia..." Justek raised his head back up and poked his staff a little to the right.

Bright white light flushed out to the left of Mew and made him hop away from it. But then he edged back towards it, curiously stretching his neck out to take a closer look.

"Take a moment to replenish the energy you lost fighting my dear children. Consider it a gift deserving of your answer..."

Mew glanced over at Justek and his tender, unassuming smile and knew he should've been cautious right now. Yet with little more resistance than a sigh Mew put his hand right into the rift of light and started absorbing the energy into his body.

It was his first time fiddling around with light energy like this. It was soothing, like taking a dip in a hot bath after a long day of training. It didn't require much time to refill himself, and he pulled his hand free with Justek closing the rift not a second later.

Mew looked over both sides of his hands and closed it into a fist with the knuckles pointing at his face.

"Hmmm!" He made one firm, hard grunt then swung his hand out, summoning his sword into it with a finger drawn straight towards the white trigger.

He snapped into Light Form without a second thought and drew his katana towards Justek. The man raised his head all the way up, standing tall and composed before the resolve his opponent presented.

"There truly was no other way that this could have gone down..."

"What, you feeling guilty?" Mew remarked.

"..." Justek closed his eyes and his smile lowered a fair bit, "Not at all."

There was a slight shift in the atmosphere towards complete silence that broke when Justek tapped his staff against the ground and tilted it towards Mew in tune with the turn of his body.

"You venture into the unknown, young Mew. The days of our lives have woven together to create this grand stage of battle. May this prologue of our climatic battle ring out to those spectating in the heavens...So that history may belong to the last one standing."

Mew narrowed his gaze and Justek's smile perked back up as he whispered, "Show me...the strength of resolve your life has gifted you."

Mew spun his sword around with a flick of the wrist and returned his hand to his side. "With pleasure!" He yelled as he steadied his body towards hie foe.

"_Auris said he can open rifts by 'perceiving the flaws in the universe'...I got to be careful not to commit too hard to my attacks here, or he might send me flying face-first into the sun." _

Mew assessed his options and gathered light into his blade to take a mighty swing out. Right after a wave of light went flying towards Justek he darted around to the man's left.

The man's eyes did not budge until the last inch before contact, upon which the sudden speed of which they darted to meet them gave Mew some fright. Mew committed to the swing of his blade and Justek turned to clash with it using his staff.

Justek used the attack to push himself further back with his hop, which allowed him to evade the projectile. Justek locked the staff into position and summoned a couple rifts along its length. Dozens of small, black and blue orbs went flying out towards Mew.

Mew slammed his feet down and whipped his katana around to slice the orbs apart. His eyes demanded to close, but he couldn't allow it to happen for even a second.

There was a break in the bombardment where Mew darted forward and slashed across the middle of Justek's weapon. Justek shifted his hand a little further down and then poked his staff towards Mew's chin.

Mew bit his teeth down and flipped away, landing on bent knees with katana tucked in the sheath. Justek twirled his staff around as he leveled it horizontally by his hip and parted a bit of his cape to his back.

"Interesting..." He murmured.

Mew slanted his eyes and rampaged forth, tearing his katana free and slamming it towards Justek's chest. The man reflexively responded with an intense, stalwart defense from his staff and didn't budge an inch.

Mew had passed him in the interim, leaving behind a dozen furious slashes to keep Justek on his toes. With gritted teeth Mew spun around and dragged his katana out from over shoulder to fire a bigger slash of light at the man.

Justek peered over his shoulder, a twisted gleam coming from the corner of his eye right as a rift widened open just big enough to catch the light before it hit. Then another rift opened above Mew and sent the energy right back, having corrupted it with the dark energies of the void.

Mew hopped away, the energy tingling in his skin like static. He then whipped his sword around twice and sent more light after Justek in the shape of an "X".

Justek continued to turn around and with one wistful swing of the staff, cut through the light quicker than the blink of an eye.

"_He's got pretty sharp reflexes for an old man..." _Mew dug his feet into the ground and skidded a fair distance away with his sword thrust back into the sheath.

He clenched his fists and jerked them down by his hips, igniting light around them. He then lobbed them out, where they arched over Justek's head. They combined together into a bright, explosive flash that overwhelmed him to the point of leaving only the shadows directly beneath his feet intact.

"_That should slow him down for a bit!" _Mew took that chance to start gathering light into his sword. But as he motioned his hand towards the handle Justek's staff slipped between his elbow and struck his chest.

"Khhh...!" Mew recoiled a couple feet back and the staff sprang back through the air and into Justek's grasp.

The man posed with his free hand before his chest and remarked in a crass tone, "I would applaud the attempt to blind me...But unfortunately, my vision of the future is always crystal clear."

Mew stood up and felt a sharp pain in his chest. Justek might have broken a bone or two.

"Oh yeah...?" Yet his snappy comebacks were still sharp as ever, "Bet you didn't see THIS coming!"

He snapped his fingers and Justek flinched in response. Mew smirked. It was just a feint after all. But it gave him plenty of time to reach back down for his sword and dart after his opponent.

Justek rallied his staff to the forefront for defense. Mew jerked back at the last second and leaned back while lifting his left leg, clocking Justek in the back of his legs to throw him off-balance.

The man appeared alarmed as he tumbled through the air. Mew readied his sword on the turnaround and drove it towards his foe's chest. Yet right as the attack seemed poised to connect Justek flashed a playful smile and a black gap opened up between him and Mew's blade, where gravity carried him through safe from harm.

Mew sliced the gap in half and hastily stopped in place upright, eyeing his surroundings for any signs of Justek's reappearance.

"Try to keep up now." The man's taunt, as a warning, came too late for Mew to respond towards with anything more than craning his neck back.

Justek dove out of the sky and clobbered Mew in the face with half of his staff. Blood spewed from Mew's nose as he stumbled back, vulnerable to a follow-up. Justek chose to take his staff and thrust it at his chest once again.

But when Mew went skidding back he wound up surrounded by the blackness of the abyss, with the way inside sealing right up. Mew continued to fly, being tossed and turned by the void until his "freedom" was given by tossing him chest first into the back of Justek's staff, which he held diagonally up behind his back.

Justek then hopped and spun around, whipping the tip of his staff along Mew's stomach a few times to knock him into the ground. He landed hunched over with one hand on the ground and his staff raised behind him.

When Mew finally stopped riding the ground he hacked up a bit of blood onto his chin and pressed his elbows down to get back up. He grit his red filled teeth and rubbed the blood onto his sleeve. His heart was racing, but it wasn't him that was none too happy with this performance.

"_You're wasting your time with this piddly form boy. Only with the darkness I wield will you stand a chance against this little beast." _

Mew rolled his eyes upon standing back up and wiggled his fingers over the handle of his katana, _"I'm doing just fine without you, thank you very much. Besides, I'd like to learn all his little tricks first!" _

Justek stood up and planted his staff down next to him. He erred on the side of caution at all times and had as many openings as a cube without windows.

"_I just got to break my through then!" _Mew gripped his sword tightly and lashed it out with all his might. A wave of horizontal light rocketed towards Justek while Mew raised his sword overhead and lashed it straight back down, sending another wave after it.

The two waves merged together and went after Justek at double the speed. Mew ran straight around to the left of Justek and closed his eyes. He was moving so fast that he could barely feel the air against his body. His muscles were being pushed to their limit.

He dashed around Justek in differing spots to attempt to throw him off. There were multiple copies of him floating around at many points, the afterimages of his incredible speed.

Right when it appeared that Justek would guard his attack Mew launched himself behind the man and drove the katana at his back. Justek's right hand whipped past the side of his neck and caught the edge of the blade on his palm while with just one hand on his staff he held Mew's light at bay.

Mew used both hands to drive his sword into Justek's skin, his eyes flaring up as the pressure rippled up his arms.

"_Its not...budging!" _Mew grunted out loud in frustration.

"A valiant effort...But still not enough." Justek remained as calm as the wind on a spring day. He squeezed his hand around Mew's blade and plucked him out of the air with rigorous force, using his body to bash through his own attack and then toss him onto the ground like needless trash.

Mew managed to reposition himself so his feet hit the ground first, resulting in his knees buckling up towards his stomach. He was dragged a good twenty feet away before realizing just how far Justek had managed to throw him.

He thrust upright and remarked with a bit of a primal roar to his voice, "So that old man look's just for show eh?!"

Justek tilted his head to the side and said with a smile, "I'm only a little over two-thousand years old...I have hardly passed the days of my youth."

"Hey hey! I'm the only one allowed to crack jokes here!" Mew replied with a smirk.

"Then perhaps do a better job of it so I wouldn't have to pick up the slack." Justek turned and swiped his staff down towards the center of his body. He stiffened it in place and opened a large rift. Ugly, dark blue flames spewed from the rim, heralding a beam of roaring flames to rip through the air.

Mew dashed to the left out of the way and bolted straight towards Justek. The man wiggled his staff around and went "Ah ah ah" right as another rift opened up, putting Mew in the path of more flames. Mew rolled through the air to avoid those but upon passing the rift noticed the first was still up.

Curious, he looked back and saw that Justek had bridged the two rifts together with a third, or rather second one, in-between. Mew hastily turned to his left and another rift opened up to send the flames his way.

Mew curved his flight over them and then flipped to land on the ground. The speed carried him closer to Justek as he reached for his katana and drew it out. He swung at the man as he passed him by with slashes quicker than the naked eye could see.

Justek blocked them all with carefully timed swings of his staff, allowing Mew to pass him by without incident. For when he was behind him, another rift would open above Mew and send the flames hurtling his way. Mew hopped away and with one swift slash cut an energy wave through the middle of the flames and hit Justek's face.

The man recoiled slightly and rubbed his face. But Mew's efforts didn't stop the flames from continuing to come at him through other portals. Mew kept on the move and tried to cut through the flames' path to no avail.

There was a lot of room to move around but doing so put him further away from his opponent. With a click of his tongue against the roof of his mouth Mew muttered to himself, "Fine...I guess I've seen enough."

He went for the black trigger and pulled it down in record time. The feathers on his wings rotted down to black muck to cover the bones. Black goop crawled up his arms and legs until they reached the shoulders and thighs. Mew's eyes turned dark yellow, with streaks of blackish-red marking the space beneath his eyes.

When his angelic garb had been fully shed and the darkness embraced in its stead, Mew lunged his right hand towards the incoming flames and grabbed on tight to them from the center. He braced his feet hard into place and forced the flames down into a spherical shape. His elbow pushed in closer to the side as the pressure grew, until finally Mew had reduced all those flames to an orb the size of his head.

Mew cocked a fanged smile and then looked over at Justek.

"Hey Justek!" He hollered to draw the man's attention in. In less than a millisecond Mew was leaping right at his face with the evil flames emphasizing the vile glow in his own eyes.

"You forgot something!" He proclaimed as he unleashed the beam of fire upon the man.

Justek was consumed in flames for a few moments before leaping out, black embers riding along the rim of his cape. A rift opened up behind him for escape, but right as the thread of his cloth dipped inside Mew stretched his right arm out and grabbed him by the chest.

"You're not running away this time!" Mew dragged him in and smashed his fist against his face. He let up on his arm a bit to drag Justek back in before he hit the ground, where he punched him again, again, and again.

For the last strike Mew's knuckles cracked and the bones in his arms snapped upon contact with Justek's face. The man dug his staff into the ground immediately upon landing to slow down. Mew was having none of them.

He cupped his hands before his chest and gathered in black flames to launch a fireball at the man. The flames drilled into Justek's chest and with a rough cough the man continued to be pushed back further and further.

But before the flames could penetrate his armor he managed to open a small rift to swallow up the fireball. He then hunched forward slightly, his face hidden behind his draping hair.

Mew landed on the ground, rolled his arm around a couple times, and proclaimed in a self-assured tone, "How do you like that?! Now the real fight begins, Justek!"

"Oh, I do agree..." Justek replied in a deep, ominous tone, raising his head ever so slightly to reveal a smirk and pop his fogged up glasses back into place. His nostrils flared open and released steam, while bits of black and blue flames emerged from the sides of his mouth.

"If you wish to be a monster..." Justek pulled his head up all the way and the texture of his eyes looked more vein-y and reptilian than it had before, "Then let _us_ **be** monsters."

Mew felt a chill rolling down his spine as Justek grabbed his staff horizontally and with one effortless grunt snapped it in two. The man then slammed the stones into the ground and black and blue flames erupted from them with an empowering roar.

The man's back crack and creaked, as a war was waged between bone and flesh. The winner was bone, bursting free from the skin as a wide, massive pair of wings. It pushed the cape into a crumbled mess on Justek's neck and flapped the viscera off its ivory marrow.

Justek's whole entire body started to grow, as the skin along his arms and legs began to morph. The armor he wore wasn't broken so much as it was consumed into the flesh, replaced by thick, exposed dark yellow muscles. The remainder of the skin on his arms and legs turned black and scaly. As his body grew, the flames from his broken staff expanded the black stone with their presence, allowing the weapons to keep even with Justek's change in mass.

Mew slowly backed up and grit his teeth. The silent air howled a cry of black omen as the courage Mew held dear was robbed from his heart, leaving it a throbbing, frightened mess.

At the point of being ten feet tall, Justek's flesh spilled out from his back and strewn itself along the bony wings, forming a thin, vein-y blue membrane barely kept attached by hard black flesh. He twisted his head around as his face was pushed out and slowly transformed into a more draconic form. His neck extended to the length of three feet, supported by a broadened chest.

The black stone ended on a triangular shape wreathed in blue flames, with what little remained of the staff having grown in size to fit into Justek's hands. As the hands lost all traces of their humanity, a sharp claw protruded out from behind his fingernails, and the thumb stuck to the pointer finger, creating a four-pronged pair of claws.

Now roughly twenty feet tall, the only remnant of Justek's humanity was his hair strapped onto the back of his head. He stretched his neck up and grunted warmly as his head finished taking shape. It had a short, toothy snout with fangs stretching across both sides of the mouth.

He lowered his head and had to strain his neck slightly to look down upon Mew, who felt microscopic in comparison to this beast of burden. Cast in the light of the sun, Justek's form looked utterly horrific. His wings spread to thirty-five feet wide in total, there was a ten-foot long tail made of sharper scales dragging along the ground, and his main body was smooth and gray-ish. And he wielded his massive broadswords like they were toothpicks.

"Well...?" Justek spoke up in a booming, guttural tone that somehow retained his sense of politeness, "Have I met your expectations now?"

And just like that, Mew started trembling at the knees. He was faced with power the likes of which he'd never felt before. It was otherworldly. Massive. Like a void that continued to suck out all the joy and hope in all living things, and left the faithless husks to be crushed under pressure.

He wielded darkness. But alone, the shadow Justek cast was deeper and darker than any other darkness. And yet, all Mew could do is force a smile and shake out a giggle.

"This is the best you've got right...?" Mew raised his head up high and spread his fingers as his hands laid close to his chest. His body trembled, his heart raced, and his skin was drenched in a cold sweat.

"So all I have to do now...Is defeat you!" His body exploded with a black aura as he pushed the darkness he controlled to its limit.

Justek dragged his swords off the ground and with a "gentle" swing of one to straighten himself before Mew, he unleashed a hurricane gale upon him. Narrowing his snake-like eyes, Justek's breadth of teeth cracked a foul grin as he spoke.

"Do you truly carry the will necessary to surpass the past? We shall SEE!" With not a second more of waiting Justek hauled the right sword above his head and sent it crashing down towards Mew's head.

With barely a second to respond Mew raised his hands to catch the blade and immediately found himself on one knee struggling to hold it back. The flames forced the black goop into retreat down his arms and left the bare skin to handle things.

The sword rose and lowered, hammering into Mew's hands with vigorous force three times before his legs gave up and both knees fell to the ground. He continued grasping onto the blade. His eyes felt ready to boil. But he would NOT give in.

Justek pulled the sword away and dragged his right foot along the ground, kicking Mew away in the process. As he went flying Justek ground his swords across the air in front of him. The atmosphere split down to the atoms as a violent surge of energy tore its way out towards Mew.

Mew floated in place for a moment and then dove straight for the ground, crouching against it on his hands and knees as the attack narrowly blazed by overhead. Mew then took darkness into his hands and launched a few fireballs across Justek's body as he rose.

The fireballs exploded upon contact but seemed to barely make the man take pause. Justek hunched forward and let loose a roar as he came barreling after Mew with his swords thrust by his sides.

"_Uh-oh!" _Mew leaped straight to the right and twisted around, throwing one of his arms in the way of Justek's rampage. He managed to secure a firm grip on the beast's neck but was immediately dragged after him.

Mew swung under Justek's sword and then flung himself feet first at Justek's face. He connected with a thunderous crack from the man's jaw and then spun around upon passing. He broke his momentum and dove straight back down to pound his fist into the opposite side of his face.

He then spun around upon landing on the ground, using the tips of his claws to finally stop. He stared up at Justek's face and watched him slowly crack it back into place, taunting Mew with a grizzled smile and deep chuckle.

Mew's heart skipped a beat, and the beast promptly turned and swung his right blade down upon him. Mew leaped out of the way and cupped his palms together to ready the black flames to his aid.

Justek went after him pounding his swords down every heaving step of the way. The blades were like hammers in the forge of devils, shooting their cacophony of thunderous sounds straight into Mew's eardrums like arrows.

Fleet footwork was the only thing keeping Mew from being a bugsplat underneath them. But it was impossible to find an opening to attack like this. With some quick thinking Mew flung his cupped hands back and tossed the orb of dark flames into a rift.

He then sealed it right up and planted his feet hard against the ground. He thrust his arms out tightly between Justek's swords and roped them around his neck. Before the flames could work their magic Mew vaulted between the blades with all his strength and slammed his feet into the center of Justek's neck.

He felt the draconic titan's feet falter into their support, his immense girth pushing and dragging him back towards the ground.

"Go DOWN damn you!" Mew growled.

"I think not..." Justek snarled back. A sudden increase in temperature led to Mew looking up and seeing flames swelling up within the dragon's mouth. Hideous, putrid flames that smelled of death and disease, pitched in a shade of irreverent black.

Justek spread his wings and slammed his feet back down, refusing to budge. The strength of his retaliation threw Mew off his neck and onto the ground, where the black flames would soon follow.

Mew hastened to his feet and thought to himself _"Ok change of plans!" _and pulled out the black flames he had been saving in the void. He grasped them between his hands and fired them off at Justek's mouth.

Perhaps a second longer would have prevented this attack. But instead Mew had the contend with the strength of a true devil. Justek's flames burst forth in a cone capable of sweeping through an entire city landscape once it hit the ground. Mew fended off the center of the flames from reaching with his own attack but found his beam already pushed halfway back.

And worst of all the flames had nowhere to go but towards his feet once hitting the ground. Mew grit his teeth and suddenly turned around, pointing his beam at the ground. He then looked over his shoulder as he was propelled straight into the heart of the flames with only his wings acting as his shield.

His back collided with the bottom of Justek's jaw and forced it shut. But to his spine it was like colliding with a wall of sharp diamond.

But his body would just have to deal with it. The opportunity presented itself to get another hit in and Mew was going to take it. He snapped around and whipped his legs into Justek's face, getting six hits in before the dragon's growl began to stir.

Mew then repelled himself away by blasting Justek point-blank with a shotgun of darkness from his right hand. Justek thrust his head forth and released a massive fireball from the mouth. Mew whipped over to the left in the nick of time, watching as the fireball flung across the arena in the span of three seconds and exploded like a miniature nuke upon the glass.

Mew could _feel_ the shockwave from the attack all the way over here. It made even Alex's best efforts look pitiful in comparison.

"Do not lose focus on your opponent..." Justek uttered eerily close by. Mew turned around and the dragon had not only gotten in front of him, but as also in mid-swing with both his swords.

Mew was daring but not THAT daring, and promptly propelled himself away from the blades. Yet the gale they kicked up tossed him around in the air like a fly in a storm.

Mew opened a rift and threw himself inside to get to safety. There he caught his breath and hoped to come up with a plan of attack.

"There is no escape now, little one..." Justek's voice clearly called to him through the void, sending a shiver down his spine. The tip of one of the dragon's blade then penetrated into the void and rammed Mew back into the arena through another rift.

Justek withdrew his sword and heaved his heavy body off the ground, spinning around hard enough to drag Mew closer in and force him to face the weight of his blades upon his flesh.

The girth of one dragged Mew down to the familiar ground and pinned him in place until Justek could properly land. He then took his sword off, only to replace it with the weight of his tail, the sharp protrusions wedging themselves into Mew's skin on multiple locations.

"GAAAAHH!" Mew yelled in pain and for the first time could not hold it back. He felt the blood spilling out of his body as Justek raised him off the ground just high enough for them to meet eye-to-eye. With a damning sneer his enemy began to _apologize_.

"I'm sorry, when I'm in this form I can't help but enjoy spreading a little...**pain** and **suffering** upon my foes." Not that it made the situation any better.

Justek took his tail off Mew and let him fall to the ground. Surprising even himself, he landed on his feet and laid a hand up against his chest to stop most of the bleeding.

"Haaa...haaa...haaa..." It was with heavy breaths that Mew had to start accepting the reality that lied before him.

"I can see...how you gave the old Elemental Overlord so much trouble..." Mew hunched over, his chin resting upon his chest, where he could feel his heart beat loudly, "You're strong...the strongest opponent I've ever faced..."

"I..." Mew's vision blurred ever slightly, "I don't think I can beat you..."

He grit his teeth and curled his fist, dragging the blood between his knuckles. His heart beat continued to burn on, with the fire of his soul raging like never before.

"But I will sure as hell TRY!" He sprung his fist out and pounded Justek square in the chest. The dragon let out his first grunt then cocked his fangs into a smile.

He purposefully staggered back a couple feet and then swung his sword down at Mew. Mew hopped away and flung a few dark fireballs into the sky. He opened a pair of rifts at his side and used them as gripping points to stretch his arms back and launch himself straight at his foe.

Justek looked up briefly and then crossed his swords to block Mew's frontal assault. Mew sprang off the blades and the fireballs dropped towards the man's face. But he caught them within three small rifts and chuckled at the attempt.

Mew smiled back with a louder chuckle and then thrust his right hand out, guiding the fireballs through the void to re-emerge directly in front of Justek's face.

While the blasts covered his vision Mew drove himself behind his swords, using his claws like a drill to grind down the front of his body. Once at the waist he propelled himself away underneath the swords and looked at his work. It wasn't much, but a scar had formed on the dragon's skin.

He can be hurt. He CAN be beaten. Mew smirked at the possibility of success and continued bouncing away from his foe. Justek retaliated by lashing his swords at the ground and letting out an air quaking roar. His body brightened with purple heat, and a domed blast of fire exploded out from within.

Mew stood at the edge of the explosion when it hit and managed to block it by crossing his arms. When the heat subsided the ground was glowing white around him, and bits of flames dotted the perimeter.

"If I had just a little more power, I might be able to do it!" Mew spoke confidently, "Alright 'D.'! Time to go all-out!"

For once, the demon was silent, not even bothering with his usual complaints. Mew looked at himself in a puzzled fashion and repeated the call to action, "Uhhhh, hello? Earth to demon?"

Justek stood completely in place and lowered his swords towards the ground. Letting out a long, disgruntled sigh, he shook his head and muttered in an almost sympathetic tone, "Alas, Mew...Your part in this story is over...And through little fault of your own."

Mew nervously eyed his enemy but he should have been keeping a closer on himself. His right arm shot out, and then his left arm. Both were stiffened in place and he was unable to move them on his own. Then his head was craned back, nearly snapping it off the neck.

"_Oh, I don't think so..." _"D." chimed in, starting with a whisper before devolving into a mad fit of gleeful laughter.

"W-What's going on?! You can't do this!" Mew exclaimed in disbelief.

"_I can. I most certainly __**can**__. Because you __**let**__ me in..." _"D." thrall enveloped Mew's mind like a bunch of thin, sprawling roots, paralyzing even his will to resist.

"_You honestly didn't think you could outwit the devil did you? I am the Forever Black...The Repugnant Spawn of Hate...The Detested Bearer of the Ebony Crown...These are but a few titles I've laid claim to over my lifetime of corrupting all that is pure, and stubborn as you've been, you are still no different from the rest of my inevitable host bodies."_

"_I could not break you emotionally and for that you've earned a bit of my respect...But I knew you intrinsically on a spiritual level. You __**craved**__ power. And all roads to power eventually bring people crawling to me whether they want to or not. I played along with your little plan of desperation to lower your guard, making it easier to infiltrate your subconscious. Every time you drew on my power, a little more of me took over, until it became possible to completely capture your mind and body and make it my own." _

The darkness covering Mew's limbs began to move, quickly crawling up his neck and already consuming his midsection.

"You won't get away wtih-!" Mew's mouth was clamped shut by a mass of darkness.

"_It shouldn't have taken this long to shut you up. But now you can feed me your anguish in silence like the puppet you are!" _The darkness crawled along up the rest of Mew's face and he lost sight of his surroundings in seconds. He couldn't feel anything after another second. Couldn't hear after another one. And soon, he could barely bring himself to think.

And the last thought on his mind was none other than, _"Kairi, I-"_

It was blanketed over with darkness, and dragged into the abyss of his subconscious where the demon now laid dominant.

The demon's black mass quickly finished covering over Mew's body, and "D." brought his hands to the ground, extending the length of the claws to emphasize their sharpness. Mew's head was forced into a rounder shape while the wings on his back split in three. The sprawling strands of darkness between them snapped off like webbing, and the wings shed their liquid form to reveal pointed, bloodstained chitin.

The front of the demon's new face gurgled and opened up, where two rows of dark red fangs formed around the hole. Bearing a toothful smile with glee the demon spread his thick, plentiful wings across the gloomy atmosphere and reared his head up high to celebrate what he had reclaimed.

"I...LIIIIIIIIIVEEEEEEE!" He hissed as the depths of space shook outside the arena, regaling in the return of their one true king...

Justek merely faced the demon, and began tightly twisting his grip around both his blades...

_Next Time: Monsters of a Kind_


	25. Chapter 24

_Long ago on a distant planet there were ten tribes. A tale with a familiar start to most, it'd be assumed. But there were two other tribes on that planet that lived disconnected from the affairs of the rest._

_One were born to become dragons. The other born to become wyverns. At one time they were at war with each other. But then peace was claimed when an heir to royalty from both sides were chosen to wed, with their son being the proof of an end to bloodshed._

_He lived a quiet life. A simple life. A longing life. His life would change in many fateful ways, filled with both blessings and curses._

_But it was the eve of his eighteenth birthday where the greatest, most deplorable tragedy of his life would come to pass._

_It started as any other day, with the sun shining down its golden rays upon the land. And then Death descended from the sky, eclipsing the sun in murderous black. _

_The devil wore six wings and the silhouette of an insect, its many lenses eyeing the hundreds of prey that lied before it. It attacked without word or purpose, cackling in glee as its tendrils ripped through the cores of many brave and powerful warriors with ease._

_A disharmony of screams filled the sky as the slaughter hastily devolved into a slow, methodical hunt. Black fire raged throughout the villages, pilfering the children of their youthful souls. _

_The son born of peace could only watch on in horror as this demon prowled the night. The dark smog and blanket of night helped the beast conceal itself, making every waking second a living nightmare whose end the boy begged for._

_The son tried to hold his breath and calm down, only for his heartbeat to damn him. The demon's head twisted and its eyes glowed a piercing yellow. And in the next moment a tendril was driving itself towards his face. _

_A splatter of red upon his face and a cold, gasp for air left the son paralyzed in place. His mother, already half-dead from the demon's rampage, had thrown herself in the tendrils path. _

_She flashed a smile and was ripped away and smashed repeatedly against the ground, where-in then the demon discarded its meal and crawled towards the son. _

_The son's back was pinned to the broken remains of his home as the demon lurched over him like it was ready to snuff out an ant. _

_He recalled so little of the events that followed. A haunting shriek. A clang to battle. Two booming voices declaring the demon's end. A graveyard erupting into a battlefield between demon and gods. A massive explosion, an end to the nightmare._

_Tired, drifting into sleep...While at his feet, two newborn babies weep..._

_It was the day everything changed, for one Justek Arcavira..._

**Chapter 24: Justek II: The Angel of Mercy**

Two-thousand years of imprisonment had done nothing to change the demon's behavior. Still it wiggled and squirmed like a parasite. And now it found home in the body of a boy that bore the specter of Justek's past, where it was quick to lord this fact over him.

Settling all four feet into the ground, "D." bore its sharp, familiar grin and twisted its host body's neck back and forth, getting off on the crack of marrow underneath the skin.

"Oooooh this feels greater than I could've possibly imagined..." It muttered between lucid breaths. The vapor from its mouth bore a disgusting black ooze that dripped to the ground.

The beast of a million backs did not wear eyes, but the presence of a glare still bore heavily on Justek's face. The demon was little more than an ant in size to the dragon, and yet it tried to play up itself up as a colossus through intimidation alone.

"How long has it been since we've met face-to-face, little beast? Was it the day you turned on the world? Or perhaps a little further back, _when I made a snack out of your people_..."

"D." creased its teeth open and ran its prehensile tongue between each individual fang. Justek stood still, closed his eyes, and took in a very deep breath. His heart beat at a regulated pace.

"You were the one that got away...My hunger for genocide cannot be left incomplete."

Justek opened his eyes ever so slightly and murmured, "Yes, because you were so successful last time."

"You are a far cry from the tear-filled whelp from before...But you shall always be a child in the eyes of the abyss," The demon broke into a brief fit of laughter followed by lording its existence over Justek's mind, "And I couldn't have gained a better body to finish you off. This is not only invincible, but to you it is untouchable! So long as it bears the face of-"

"D." twisted its teeth in a mild, uncomfortable frown as a shadow rapidly descended upon his body, crushing him under the weight of one of Justek's swords.

Justek silently smirked and pulled the sword up just enough for the demon to scurry out and let out a couple pants of surprise. Yet it quickly composed itself and tried to rile up its prey with a sinister smile.

"Your lack of hesitation changes little...I have slain the Dark King, and turned the Elemental Overlord into my meat puppet...Once I have killed you, little beast, then all that remains is to hunt down Auris Aurora and torment her immortal soul throughout eternity!"

"D." reared its front hands into the air and hissed a most foul noise before it whispered, "I will make you despair in anguish in your last moments. But rejoice! For mine is a mercy to the suffering of all sapient life forms!"

"Mercy, you say..." Justek withdrew his sword to the top of his shoulder and thrust a glare out towards the demon. With an inhumane growl from deep within, the dragon muttered out in a deep, but quiet tone, "There IS no future where your 'mercy' triumphs. At long last, I shall send you to where you belong..."

"Then approach me, Justek Arcavira, and kill the reflection of your past, wrapped in my ebony shade..._**IF**_ you can."

**The Elder Called Forth from the Abyss of Nightmares: "D."**

"D." lunged diagonally off the ground and bounced across the ground like a frog atop a set of lily pads. The malleable form of its body twisting into a cylindrical-like shape.

The demon stopped below Justek and jettisoned a multitude of tendrils from its body, lashing upon the height of his chest. Justek took the brunt of the damage as he hopped in retreat and then slashed his blades down at the ground.

A hefty gale dragged the demon's form away, only for it to snap right back into place and spring straight at his prey's chest. Justek swung one blade up and caught the demon upon it, then launched it towards the sky. Admist his efforts his mouth opened, ready to fire a devastating blast of flames upon his enemy.

"D." twisted around in the air and enveloped the flames closely like a spiral, diving straight towards the dragon with his grinning face at the forefront.

Justek closed his mouth and squinted his eyes, tearing open a wide rift to throw the demon into. "D." clawed the edge of the rift like solid matter and whipped around it, a plethora of black flames swallowing its other arm whole.

It flung itself at Justek's face and dragged its burning claw down the side of it, striking deep into the neck as well. It then bounced off its back and made the dragon stagger forward a little.

Justek glanced at the fresh wound. Naked and burning blue, the thin scars pained from the black embers that lingered upon it. "D." would attempt a second strike from behind. His sadistic nature had already been accounted for.

"_When you slaughtered my people, you started with the wings..." _Justek closed his eyes and nonchalantly turned and swung his left blade back in the air. The demon was rushing him straight as an arrow, too blind with ecstasy to divert his course.

The demon's jowl cracked as it was swatted away into the glass, splattering its mass into a repugnant shape. Yet in the center of it all its host's body stayed prominent. Justek whipped around and fired a flame beam bigger than his body from the mouth.

"D." collapsed back around its host and leaped off the wall straight for the flames. It launched a black flame towards the center of the attack and pierced a tunnel through. It cackled all the while, but his joy was deaf to the dragon's ears.

Justek waited for the last two seconds before hopping away and gliding his swords along the air. The strokes of wind shoved into the demon and curbed his hungered flight.

Justek then lunged forward, dragging his sword up along the ground and ultimately ramming the tip into the demon's gut. He let go of the blade with a turn of the wrist to cause it to spin around.

He then gripped his last sword in both free hands and smashed the blunt side of the blade against the demon. The sword went flying high handle first and yet the demon easily peeled itself free and dove straight after Justek, bouncing through the air in its twisted, malleable form.

"_Relentless. Tireless. Your claim as the ultimate hunter from the abyss has no argument..." _Justek flipped his grip on his blade and brought the handle before his face, _"But I shall always be the one prey that escapes your grasp." _

Through clever use of his rifts Justek recalled his other sword back. With the speed it flew he was dragged back the moment he grabbed it, but not before swinging his body left so the other sword would block the savage onslaught of tendrils "D." summoned from his right claw.

Justek continued to spin and raise his swords above his head. When he was three-quarters through he leaped forward and swung his swords down upon the demon. "D." was brought to the ground between these two heaving blades and consumed in an explosive plume of dark blue flames.

"D." crawled out quickly covered in those flames. It wiggled its mass around in agony to shake them off, screeching all the while. Its host, surprisingly, remained intact.

But Justek was not through. He opened and tightly closed a strange rift upon the tip of his blades, and began to pull on them with all his might. Forcing a dimensional rift open tends to have devastating consequences. So it is fortunate that Justek could aim said disaster upon one who deserved it.

Dimensional energies blended with the explosive force of his flames, creating a string of towering blasts each bigger than him. They rushed at "D." faster than either could blink and dragged him away.

The demon let out a hiss and shriek as it suddenly barreled through the explosions, dragging its claws through the atmosphere to tear it open. From the scars came the demon's horde of otherworldly tendrils, which wore their eyes within their many suckers.

"D." took the lead ahead of its legion and drove its claw straight for Justek's chest. He weighed his options, facing a horde of a hundred or more, with slow and calm breaths.

"_Only the brainless would ever serve you..." _Justek thought as he swung his titanic blades to the side and opened his mouth to send a simple fireball hurtling at the demon.

The demon grabbed it out of the sky and flipped around to fling it back. Justek caught it in a rift and tossed it into "D.'s" back, which threw off his aim enough that all Justek had to do was lift his arm up to have him fly harmlessly by.

Terrible, demonic darkness flooded after their master in his wake, hungry for just a nibble of the scales off of this rare, exotic treat.

Justek turned his blades upon the ravenous horde and cut through dozens at a time. The flames dispersed, wiping out even more. But their reach was not omnipotent, and a clandestine few snuck underneath the reach of his blade to bind themselves around his legs.

They bit in with their slimy maws and chewed away at his scales for a chance to suck upon the moistened flesh. Justek's movements were slowed, taking most of his strength to drag them back even an inch at a time. He calmly breathed in and out, in and out, in...and out.

He continued to attack the remaining tendrils, but their number was immeasurable. They began to crawl up the rest of his legs and a couple even made it to his arms. And when his blades were slowed they managed to swarm him, consuming the front of his body completely.

This was familiar this...sense of helplessness bathed in a sea of black. So why was it that Justek felt nothing but the calm in his mind, even when the hunters from the abyss bit away at what made him alive?

Because the demon lived off of torment and suffering. Cutting way all hope at the last possible second, and inflicting the strongest despair. Thus, the greatest way to infuriate such a primordial beast...Is to beat them at their own game.

"Heh..." Justek chuckled, heard only by himself.

"D." hovered behind him, licking the yellow saliva off his drooling lips as he performed his usual taunts to unknowingly no avail, "Yes, yes...Feast my children. You've been hungry for so long...But don't get too greedy...Daddy wants his fill as well..."

What his blind hunger failed to notice, however, was that his army of tendrils were beginning to boil. Justek's scales opened up, and heat hissed forth like a train engine beginning to start.

The demon's cocksure smile evened out, and the sudden realization followed by a shrill "NO!" came too little too late. With the roar carrying the power of a lineage of kings, Justek released a megaton blast of pure, destructive heat from his body.

The tendrils stood no chance. They dissolved within milliseconds. But "D." would not be allowed a chance at cowardice. With a swing of his tail, Justek impaled the demon and forced him on the ground to endure the heat of a hundred dying suns.

When the tendrils died they took the scars in the sky with them. And in their place the air was filled with a mix of sweeping fire and demonic screeching. The explosion came to a sudden end, upon which Justek let out a long, barely tired breath and whipped the demon off his tail as he turned around.

"D." fell to the ground with a "Splat!" and half his body looked like water. The boiled bits of his black flesh fell to the ground and turned to steam. The right of his face was melting off, and nothing about his fangs screamed "Happy" right about now.

"So the little beast has grown a backbone..." The demon snarled as the heat's effect subsided, and all its misshapen flesh snapped back into place. The pitch black monster surrounded itself in a cowl of even blacker flames, and spread it wings as far as they could go.

"Fine...Just another part to BREAK!"

No longer was the beast of a million backs out to feast. Its twisted brain fired on all cylinders with killing intent. And it came at Justek, filling his eardrums with a blood-curling screech.

Justek remained motionless as the demon made its approach. Only when it raised its claw to strike did he smirk and choose to play its game.

"D." stretched its claws out and made them sharp enough to penetrate even his tough hide. Justek hopped back with the lofty feeling of low-gravity dragging his bulk away. He calmly swung his right sword down and broke the demon's blades like glass, sending a wave of fire at him as compensation.

"D." lashed its palms together and fired a devilish ring of black fire to absorb it and grow bigger. Bigger than even Justek himself. The flames crunched down onto Justek's wings and forced them down onto his body, the sound of brittle bone filling his ears.

Justek's smirk waved ever slightly as he lunged ahead and swung his swords at the demon's body. The demon perched itself atop one of the blades like a gargoyle and left itself there until the blades were held far out from their master's sides.

Then it hopped off and repeated stretching its claws out. Justek turned to the demon and flexed the ring of fire off his wings, keeping them out of the demon's warpath. He then charged ahead, evading the claws' touch.

"You won't escape me this time!" "D." declared as it flipped and vaulted sideways after Justek, stabbing its claws out and breaking off any of the blades that miss.

The demon got ahead of him in seconds, forcing Justek to stop and turn right towards his foe. "D." gleefully raised both his claws and thrust the severing blades down. All of them penetrated into Justek's flesh.

The demon's smile turned upside-down when Justek continued forward, shoving the demon along with him.

"DI-!"

"No." Justek opened his mouth and retaliated verbally with a roar of flame that heralded a fireball. It struck "D." head-on and snapped the blades off his claws. Justek then expanded his muscles ever slightly, unbinding the rest from his flesh.

He then leaped and swung his swords at his foe, which he narrowly escaped by pressing his claws atop the blades and vaulting over him. From there "D." bombarded his back with black fireballs that left behind miniature explosions.

Justek whipped around with fire expunged from his mouth, sweeping the air that the demon chose to cower in. "D." dropped to the ground and plunged his claws into a puddle of darkness. A larger one formed under Justek, where a dozen of those claws emerged and started lashing away at Justek's body.

The numerous scars to his flesh meant little to him. He used the swing of his blades to bash the demon away from his swamp with pure air and then rampaged at him, his stomps quaking the entire battleground.

"D." twisted his smile in glee and plunged his right claw into another puddle. Justek heaved his heavy body off the ground right as this occurred and leaped over the massive claw the demon tried summoning in his path.

Justek turned and bashed the demon against the side of his tail, spinning him around on a dizzying ride. Justek aimed his breath of fire at the ground, forming a ring to broil the demon alive as they continued to be dragged along.

Justek let him go after a few seconds of this, but the sudden whiplash of his end turned the ring of flames into an expanding wall that swept through the demon one more time for good measure.

The demon's cowl was crusted by the embers but quickly shed them off. It then snarled its gruesome teeth and growled at Justek, "Do you care nothing about what happens to this useless piece of flesh?!"

Justek stood still and raised his head high, burrowing the parasite under his shadow. His answer? A smile cloaked in silence.

"Or do you believe yourself to be above your emotions, Justek Arcavira? How rich..." "D." stood hunched over on its hind legs and stretched its right claw out.

"Maybe you'll care more when I break this vessel's bones..." It said as it twisted its arm around like a knot, spraying blood out from the creases in its black mass as many bones cracked beneath. It smiled wide, then twisted the arm around again to wring even more blood free.

Justek stared, unmoving, and unvoiced. Not a single scale disturbed...

"...You cannot hide your emotions forever. I will wring...Every last DROP of anguish from your soul, as I tear your flesh to ribbons!" "D." suddenly took flight in the sky and spread its wings with the sun as its backdrop.

It reminded Justek much of his first dreadful encounter with the demon. Its silhouette was the same as it was back then too.

The demon drew from the wellspring of power his host body provided and created six devilish glyphs of blood red around itself. And from these spawned red meteors with black flames, each the size of Justek.

"Purge in black and blood..." The demon tossed its right claw forward and thrust the first of many meteors towards Justek, "Apocalypse Rain!"

"Is that all?" Justek chuckled, bringing his swords to a lowered state as dozens of rifts opened in an arch over his head, "Let me show you a storm..."

The center of the rifts howled in white as penetrating beams of light ripped through the sky, counteracting many of the meteors that fell in their path. Justek hopped around the vicinity, keeping his swords at the ready to slice through any attack that passed his defenses.

The couple meteors that managed to make it by hit the ground with a deafening explosion capable of leveling entire cities. The demon could brag and boast about this wanton destruction all he wanted. It fell on deaf ears knowing that this immense power was merely borrowed, not earned.

Justek kept focused on "D." as they dashed around, evading the broad swing of flames from his swords. He opened rifts to catch his own attacks and divert their path back towards the demon. With a constant onslaught of light and flame, the demon had little chance of running.

But a battle of this magnitude could only go on for so long.

"_I do not have an eternity to entertain your interference, demon...The remaining guests of honor will arrive soon, and it is important that they do not have a party crasher waiting for them."_ Justek locked eyes with the demon's face from this far.

"_But I do not fight this battle alone! You believe your possession is perfect, but this boy is unlike any body of flesh you've ever worn demon. Fight, young Mew! For though __**our **__battle cannot continue, there is still much for you to do..." _

Deep within the cavernous innards of Mew's subconscious, the representation of his body floated within a sea of blackened, mucky filth. It continued to expand, saturating the void to better fit its supposed new master.

"D." slowly crawled out of the mud and grinned at the boy's fallen mind. He wore his darkness over his bipedal form like a coat and hundreds of tiny, wiggly tendrils ran along his body. He loomed over Mew's body with both arms raised and his wings spread across the enclosed space around them.

"Still holding on to the bitter, fruitless end...You have been a thorn in my side for longer than I'd care to admit but..." "D." puckered his lips ever so slightly, then creased out his widest grin yet as he proclaimed, "No. Can't say there's been ANY fond memories!"

He reared his right claw black, his jowl dripping with hunger. One shot to end it all, at long, long last.

"Once the last fragment of your subconscious perishes your body and all the power it entails shall be mine forever! Now worm...DIE!"

He thrust his claws out right as Mew's subconscious form thrust his eyes open. A flash of peach colored flesh shot up and tightly gripped the demon by the wrist, holding it away from his chest.

Mew twisted his head to the right with eyes flared open and teeth bit into a bitter scowl.

"Not...YET!" Mew's resisting roar forced the murky abyss into retreat, and with one solid push Mew forced the demon's claw away and then stood right up to meet him face-to-face.

The demon hunched over, twisting its wrist around and meeting Mew's fiery glare with nothing but the utmost scorn.

"How...? Your body is lost, your mind consumed...! What does it take to put you down?!" "D." hissed in confusion.

"Because 'D.'..." Mew struck a thumbs up before his chest and cracked a big goofy smile, "Inside of me is a light...That'll never go out! Its the fire...OF MY SOUL!"

His body burst into flames and he swung his arm out, sword drawn in hand.

"I'll never let you have my body 'D.' So I'm taking it back by force..." Mew pulled the white trigger to go into Light Form and then turned sideways, his katana leveled before his face, "And forcing you to submit!"

"Forgoing partnership for slavery? How expected of your kind..." "D." creaked out a grin, "But there is no world where I swear servitude to any creature, man or beast! I am the master...And you shall be obedient!"

The demon dug its feet into the muck and pushed upright, spreading its arms to the sides and forcing the collapsing walls of mud aside to form a dome around them. It was more than spacious enough for the two to fight in.

Mew narrowed his eyes and swung his katana three times to send light at the demon. "D." swung to the right along the darkened surface and whipped his claw up one at a time. The dark muck formed into larger claws to take a swipe at Mew.

Mew dashed to the left, keeping an inch off the muck for safety. He curved towards the demon and slashed his sword up at his body. They ducked into the muck and the ripples back showed where they were going.

Mew kept going forward readying his blade along the way. The ground gurgled and popped open, spewing darkness upon his body like hot magma. Mew retreated, the darkness eating away at his body.

A shadow called his attention back and he turned right as a claw attempted to ensnare him. He cut his blade out to rend the claw in half and then retreated as a second, bigger one took its place through the middle.

A missile of darkness shot out of the ground and rammed into his back, splattering its mass upon his wings. His wings were dragged down, the mass hardening in an instant on the ground. Mew pushed his energy into his wings to give them a fighting chance.

"D." leaped out of the goop and uppercut him in the jaw. Then other copies of him popped up and pummeled away at his body.

Mew broke the darkness off his wings in a burst of light and then swept around in a circle, cutting his way through multiple demons. He then locked in on "D." and lunged ahead, whipping his blade around in a complete circle a few times to ensure it'd hit.

The demon's darkness was carved away at before it chose to retreat into the muck. Mew arched his back and slashed at the muck, cutting it up to narrow his foe's escape.

Mew hopped back twice as claws ripped free from the ground and walls to try and cut off HIS escape. "D." rose up and slammed his claw into the wall. Mew looked around and started seeing circular spots glowing bigger on the walls.

He readied his katana before his body and cautiously edged back to the center of the arena as the first chaotic blast of lightning ripped forward. There wasn't time to stop and think as another blast came to the right. Mew drew his sword to block it, then had to turn right to keep up against another attack.

Mew turned again, feeling a hollow sensation inside his head. His reaction to the next attack was sluggish, and the blast knocked him flat on the back.

"D." crawled along the muck to lord his presence directly over Mew. Mew began to raise his sword only for the muck to bind his arm and start dragging it down like quicksand.

"Did you honestly think you stood a chance in my domain?" The demon taunted with an aggravating amount of confidence. Taking a single claw to its teeth, he picked free a fragment of what appeared to be an image and kept it stuck to the tip.

Mew tried to glare up at what it was, and recognized it as one of his memories. His face turned pale, and he felt violated.

"You're eating my memories...?" He inquired.

"Oh no no no..." "D." straightened out before Mew and beckoned a couple claws from the wall with a snap of the fingers. Hundreds of bit-sized memories dripped out between their jagged spaces, only to be caught upon the demon's stretched limbs.

"I could care less about your memories...I want the _emotions_ that are harbored within!"

"...Wow, why am I not surprised..." Mew spoke dryly in response, even as more darkness gripped his limbs and dragged him down.

The bits of memories were drained dry through the demon's arms as he exposited on, "Oh how I looooooathe this form. Forced to feed on negative emotions just to survive..."

A vain smile crept across his face and he tilted his head slowly from left to right, "But that's the best part of humanity...For them, ALL emotions are a renewable resource."

"Don't understand? Then why don't I put it in your human terms...When you experience different emotions, it doesn't suddenly just delete the last you felt. What you felt is remembered and stored away in your memories to be used again whenever needed. That is why no matter how happy you get, how satisfied you are, all it takes is one bad moment, one slip of the memory, and your depression surfaces with a vengeance. And anger, sadness, grief, fear...They're all the same."

The demon cherry-picked a couple memories from the pile and lazily waved them at Mew like a fan, "How long did you spend alone...Worrying that you would never find a friend? Two years? Three years? Its not like you have had a very long life..._Clone_. Every day of your life can be divided down to the millisecond and harvested for the negative emotions you felt."

"Its ironic really...You tried sooooo hard to keep me at bay, but all that repression did was give me an infinite energy source to survive in your body for all eternity." "D." gobbled those memories in hand down and Mew felt empty in his chest once again.

The darkness wrapped around his entire legs and pulled them under, slanting his body towards the abyss. Mew grappled with a swelling sense of fear as it appeared his struggle was truly fruitless after all. And "D.", ever the opportunist, lorded this fact over him.

"Accept the embrace of the ebony aby-"

"D." was clocked square in his ugly face faster than Mew could blink. A blast of fire erupted outward and slammed the demon across the room, where he splattered against the wall.

Mew fluttered his eyelids a few times and then took his hands to rub his eyes clean, just to double-check. That he was freed from the bonds of darkness didn't even register.

"Come on Mew, we both know you aren't going down that easily..." He sounded and looked younger than he did now. But with the single black glove it couldn't have been anyone else but...

"A-Alex?!" He exclaimed, nearly out of breath from the shock.

His savior turned his head and smiled, shaking the fire off his hand to give a thumbs up, "But hey, can't hurt to help right?"

"YOU?!" The demon furiously clawed free from the wall and landed on all fours, turning its head around in circles as it exclaimed in disbelief, "HOW?!"

Alex got into a battle position and Mew walked up and poked him in the left cheek a few times. Alex glanced at him from the corner of his eye and grumbled, "Mew...I'm not real."

"I-I mean duh!" Mew awkwardly backed off and rubbed the back of his head with a chuckle, "Its just you look...younger and less-"

"Angry at everything?" The Alex let out a dry chuckle and grumbled into a state of disappointment.

"How'd you...?"

"Look, long story short...I'm a part of your subconscious. Back when Alex Whiter wiped your memories he sensed a disturbing presence in the air and worried you were vulnerable. So he put a part of himself inside of you, just in case..."

Mew's eyes slowly drew open and he smiled like a child, "He...did?"

"ENOUGH OF THIS!" The demon's cage went on a rampage. The floor and walls twisted around to befit the chaotic atmosphere he adored. The demon's body erupted with black fire and he stood tall towards his obstacles.

"I have not endured this ethereal prison just to have this shell of the past do me in! You will all die! You will all SUFFER! There is no escape! I AM EVERYTHING YOU HATE, IMMORTALIZED!"

Alex and Mew glared at the demon and got in battle positions, with Alex drawing his sword and proclaiming, "We're banishing this demon back to Hell where it belongs! Are you with me Mew?!"

"You got it...brother!" Mew grinned and couldn't stop giggling with excitement. He then had a spark of inspiration and said, "Oh hey wait! You're part of my mind, yeah?"

"Yeah...?" Alex replied.

"Then that means..." Mew closed his eyes and concentrated REALLY really hard. Alex looked at himself in surprise as he was covered in golden flames and granted the mighty wings of a Phoenix on his back.

Mew widened his eyes open and started cackling extra loud to the point of his voice cracking. Alex looked over himself briefly and stared wide-eyed at the wings on his back.

"I wanted you to be fighting at full power! I didn't know you had THAT form!" Mew exclaimed. Then after some laughter lingered on Mew glared at the back of his head and declared, "Hey WAIT A SECOND! You were holding BACK on me?!"

"How the hell do you expect me to answer for my future self?!" Alex replied in his more typical tone of voice.

"Oh...right." Mew just decided to drop the matter and focus on the demon.

"D." levitated off the ground and many giant, teethy tendrils erupted out of the walls to surround him. The violent screams filled the void. The true battle for Mew's body began now...

_Next Time: Banisher of the Dark_


	26. Chapter 25

**Chapter 25: Justek III: Disharmony of Light**

Alex and Mew leaped at "D." at the exact same time. Alex took the first swing at the demon and they swung to the right to dodge it, putting them in the path of Mew's blade.

The demon lashed their claw out to throw a tendril into the way. But fueled by the light of his blade, Mew burned through the limb like butter and struck the demon in the head.

"D." screeched, a large chunk of his body mass splatting against the floor as he retreated into the walls. The tendrils took his place and flung themselves at their prey. Alex stepped in before Mew and threw his hands up to create a wall of fire that melted the darkness upon contact.

One tendril whipped around to the left and lunged at Mew, mouths open. Mew backed away quickly and swiftly cut at the beastly maws one at a time, dividing the tendril to harmless pieces.

"You're MINE!" "D." announced upon leaping out at Mew from behind. Mew hadn't even turned halfway before Alex had to run interference and shoulder check the demon in the gut, releasing an explosive burst of flame to throw him back.

Steam hissed out of the demon's bubbling flesh as he let out a shrill shriek, settling the boils down. He then stabbed his claws out, weaving a butchering net of blades back and forth through the air.

Alex and Mew parted ways to escape. Mew focused on cutting down the blades, only for more to grow in their place. Alex cupped his hands to his side and continuously glanced back as the tips of the blades nicked the backs of his wings.

He then suddenly spun around and thrust a massive flame beam through the blades, preventing their approach and broiling the demon over in the process. "D." screamed for five seconds before striking back with a burst of black hellfire, opening the way for him to charge straight through the rest of the flames.

Alex took a step back and avoided the downward lunge of the demon's claw. Some of his tendrils came flying at him, wrapping together in a desperate, feral attempt to take him out of the picture.

Alex played a successful game of keep away and even when they got close he sent them back with a fatal swing of his blade. "D." squeezed between the tendrils and lashed his claws across the air, ripping violet scars through the void of Mew's mind.

He then took one grasping lunge at Alex, commanding a flood of tendrils to attack him from all sides. Alex's eyes widened, his hand curled tightly around his blade for a retaliatory strike.

Mew jumped into the fray and thrust his left hand before his face. A flash of light no bigger than his head called forth a sphere of light to force the tendrils at bay, their heads splashing apart around the edge.

Mew then quickly dropped the barrier and ducked down, where Alex swung his sword forth with all his might to send a wide wave of fire after the demon. "D." pushed his claws out and gripped the front of the flames, only for it to keep shoving him back.

His arms bent up to the chest even as he stretched them out to prevent it from happening.

"Hey!" Mew hollered, the demon's head thrusting up with gritted fangs right as the sole of Mew's grieve bashed his face all the way out the back of his skull.

At the same time, Alex sped behind the demon and stabbed his blade through his back, absorbing his own flames on the other side. The flames condensed, turning the blade bright orange, and then an explosion ripped through the demon's innards.

The two Overlords backed away, watching the half-full demon attempt to reconstruct itself with his scowling jaw surprisingly fully intact. The effort started slow but kicked into overdrive with yet another of the demon's screams.

Even before he had been fully restored "D." was throwing itself at Mew desperate to strike him. Mew readied his blade by his hip and flared his eyes open at the precise moment he struck out.

_Outside..._

Justek swung one blade out from his hip to strike the rampaging demon in the hip. The demon went flying through the air quicker than a bullet and splattered against the nearby glass.

Justek turned to face him and bore a smirk of confidence as he knowingly taunted the demon, "What appears to be the matter?"

The parasite pulled itself together around its host and floated away from the glass gripping its head. With a tightening of its claws around the skull it found itself repelled by bits of static no worse than what you'd get from friction off a carpet.

"Shut up...!" "D." shrieked and flew straight for Justek. Midway through he thrust his arms through two dark rifts, where Justek could tell they would bounce around on their way to him.

Raising his head back and grunting out a chuckle, the dragon remarked, "So, you wish to fight on my terms then?"

Merely closing his eyes, Justek felt out the demon's arms and both opened and closed rifts within the void to slice through his limbs. Hundreds of these rifts were formed with ease, culminating in Justek closing the rifts through which the claws first breached.

The demon laid humbled by his own dirty tricks turned against him, the brief flirting with this odd feeling giving Justek time to tackle him straight-on with his massive body. The demon went tumbling back through the air, but narrowly sprung his legs down upon the glass to avoid a repeat of before.

"This..." Justek raised a blade towards the demon, "Is how you use them properly."

The next second "D." found himself surrounded by the light that was his bane. A dozen rifts, filled with white, bore down on his blackened flesh. Rays of light pounded him against the glass in a cage with no holes, the weight of the combined energy creating an expanding orb that eventually burst upon Justek's sealing of the rifts.

Justek pulled his left sword beside his face and lashed it out, sending a tidal wave of flame across the ground to further hold the demon down.

"GRAAAAHHH!" "D." dragged his arms out under the pressure of the flames and wrapped them together, twisting his own dark mass into a knot to reach past the wall of fire.

He gathered the darkness into his palms and shot a black and red orb straight ahead. By going so fast it began to collapse, it screamed, making Justek wince. Then the orb smashed into the fabric of reality, forcing open a twisted, diamond-like rift.

"D." slapped his hands back against the wall and slipped away into his own rift, quickly speeding along to the one he just opened. He was cocksure that Justek could not close THIS one. And he was right, for once. But really, why would he even need to?

The demon crossed the boundary out of the darkness ready to strike and found himself directly in the path Justek's mouth-open face. And the torrent of flames that released burned even hotter than the ones before.

"D." plummeted out of the flames to the ground halfway away from his foe. He rolled around, putting the embers out off his bubbling flesh. He then turned around onto all fours and spread his wings.

"How...?! How can I not hit you?!"

"That...Is an answer forever beyond your reach, demon." Justek calmly retorted as he drew his blades to his sides.

"I'll drag it out of your skull then!" "D." had little more to offer than the shrieks of a cornered rat as he tried yet another attempt on the dragon's life...

_Inside..._

"Alex, heads up!" Mew exclaimed as the demon breached through the darkness above Alex and successfully grabbed him by the shoulders. The demon froze there and stretched his arms to slam his prey down into the darkness below.

Alex tried to throw the demon off by releasing a burst of flame, but after melting the darkness away his feet were plunged into the swampy murk below. Alex pulled his leg up but the darkness pulled harder.

"Hold on Alex, I'm coming!" Mew got his blade into the sheath and charged straight after him. "D." intercepted him, appearing directly before his face while screeching, "You're going nowhere!"

He then punched Mew square in the gut, spreading his claws out so the tips could stretch and penetrate through his organs. The demon started wildly laughing, spitting saliva through his split open mouth as he declared victory to be his.

"You're mine now! No more saviors for you!"

Mew calmly thrust his blade out of the sheath and clocked the demon in the face with the back of the handle. He then grabbed onto it and whipped it out to his side, slicing through the demon's head in the process.

Mew then grabbed the demon's wrist and forced it free, with not a single drop of blood to be found on the claws. "D." staggered back looking utterly twisted in his confused state and exclaimed in a shriek, "I eviscerated your insides! How are you still standing?!"

"Dude, I'm just a representation of my own subconscious..." Mew nonchalantly retorted, then reared his head back and took the time to let out a pitying sigh, "You're...not used to having this much resistance, are you?"

"Shut up shut up SHUT UP!" The demon exclaimed and pulled his claws back ready to strike.

"GHHH!" He's taken by surprise when Alex suddenly popped up from behind and started pulling on the demon's arms.

"You're not as tough as you claim you are! I bet you've only ever successfully taken control of complete wimps!" Alex raised and slammed his feet into the demon's back when they started showing resistance.

"I am the infinite darkness! There is nothing I cannot overcome!" The demon tried stretching his arms out to loosen the grip Alex had over them, all the while failing to put a scratching on his abdomen.

"Nothing in this world is forever 'D.'..." Mew remarked as the glint from his blade drew his foe's attention forward. Utilizing his tiny smile to further wound the demon's pride, Mew held the katana inside the sheath until the demon hissed.

"And you? END HERE!" Mew drew his blade form the sheath with incredible force, painting over most of the demon's body in a streak of silver.

This gave Alex ample opportunity to rip the demon's arms right off and get away. He burned them up and tossed them aside.

"D." remained only as a head floating in the void. Try all he might, he couldn't force the rest of his body to reform.

"No...Noooo...! I...I refuse to be anything less than absolute!" The speck of a head stretched and wailed into the void a most prehensile, penetrating cry. The darkness surrounding him wobbled in a discordant form, breaking down into pure liquid that rose and splashed like a tidal wave against the walls of Mew's mind.

"Mew! Careful!" Alex flew towards his brother and helped push him out of the way right as the darkness started collapsing upon "D.", down to the very last drop...

_Outside..._

"D." laid spread out along the ground, like a creature attempting to rise out of an oil puddle. His claws barely formed back together under the heat of Justek's embers.

The dragon towered over him and cast the shadow of his wingspan over him. Staunch and defiant, Justek stood, and stared. The demon reacted with a hiss as his head blobbed out of the muck. His back crawled out, hunched over as his drenched wings struggled to rise.

"You...think you can deny me...?" The demon muttered.

"I am the angel of mercy cloaked in black...I gift salvation to all you feeble mortal fleshbags, and yet you wretch at the sight of me..." "D." lashed about in his own gooey flesh, clawing one limb out onto the ground before him.

"You know NOTHING about what hides in the darkness...The poison...the dreaded taint of the universe...You think you can combat the terror of God gushing about inane ideals of friendship and love?! Death EQUALS salvation! Acclimate to the mold, or perish a fate worse than death! And then we'll see where your screeching maw gets you then!"

Justek closed his eyes and let out a soft chuckle, "Friendship and love? You must be getting your opponents mixed up now."

He then dropped his blades towards the ground, "Your twisted philosophy is a venom bred from your spurned soul. _You_ are the one who should beg for salvation, demon."

The demon crawled out of the muck and grinned, speaking in a raspy voice, "You're all talk, Justek Arcavira...I still hold all the cards. You will never kill me while I inhabit this body...Beat it. Maim it, yes...But kill this one? While it wears the face of your cherished one? Even your black heart couldn't bear to do that."

"You can barely stand before me without breaking apart. This was a battle lost to you before it even began and you can't even see it. And in less than a minute, your little interruption shall be nothing more than a fleeting memory."

"Oh quit acting so above it all...No matter how strong you become, little beast..." "D." raised his wings over his back and they all began surging with electricity drawn from the dark dimension. Their pitch black forms coming together to form a massive orb of darkness.

"Your mind remains forever scarred by me!"

_Inside..._

Mew and Alex stood back-to-back, raising their fists towards their surroundings. Trapped within a collapsing sphere of darkness, the two found the demon's grinning fangs present on every square foot of the walls.

Together they split open and filled the void with laughter. A rather pitiable, unhinged laugh at that. Mew grit his teeth and his fists tensed up, but he just didn't quite know where to strike.

"Do you feel confident in your victory now?! Can you say you're cocky NOW?! All roads that lead to power eventually lead to me! I am your temptation, your weakness, your _destruction_." All the demon's mouths opened up and started sucking in air.

Mew grimaced as he felt bits of his memories being ripped from his subconscious and fed to the demon's ravenous appetite. Every devoured emotion chipping away at Mew's ability to resist. When that gluttonous monster had its fill for now, it advanced closer to its prey while its yells grew louder.

"A feast worth the patience I spared for your ilk! But why stop at one serving when I can enjoy it again?!" "D." opened his mouths and devoured more of Mew's memories and emotions.

"And again?!" He repeated with greater force.

Mew's knees started to cave in, where Alex was there to help him stand. The demon continued on laughing, dominating the scene with an unstoppable barrage of cacophonies.

"This is your fate! Your demise! I am taking away everything that you are, bit by precious bit!"

"After all this time you still don't get it 'D.'..." Mew stood up and stared into the face of madness with a bright smile, "There's more to me than my memories and emotions. My bonds, my spirit, they are all a part of me too. And I will-"

"Preach to the choir of screaming souls I shall send you to! I am done listening to your spiels!" "D." opened all his mouths at once and the collapsing walls trembled.

"I AM YOUR SUPERIOR!" The mouths jumped Mew and Alex at the same time, flooding him many times over with darkness certain to bury even the brightest lights.

The darkness quickly began to split with white and red cracks.

"YOU'RE NOTHING!" Mew and Alex's yell shattered the barrier around them and forced the real "D." into the open directly in front of them.

Without pause they charged him side-by-side and thrust their fist square into the demon's twisted gut. He howled, spewing the saliva of its thirst through the air as the two rocketed forward, carried by the strength of their resolve.

After smashing through many barriers of darkness that subjugated Mew's mind, the two released their foe with a sudden stop. Swinging their fists down to their side, Alex narrowed his eyes and reached for his glove.

"We're ending this now!" He proclaimed as he tore the glove off. Bright, rainbow colored flames exploded up his arm like a rocket going off into space.

Mew swung his arm down and with a little concentration the same flames appeared on his fist. Tightening up a smile and confidently nodding he proclaimed, plain and simple, "Yeah!"

"D." flailed in the air as the two came barreling after him propelled by the flames. Their knuckles buckled down to the point of the bone breaking through the skin.

"Feel the ignition...!"

"Of our combined wills!"

The two smashed their fists into the demon at the same time. A pounding shockwave rippled throughout Mew's mind, carrying the flames that burned "D." down to the core in a near-instant, not even allowing him time to scream.

"TWIN OVERLORD FIST!"

_Outside..._

"D."'s body began to spasm, the energy he summoned forth breaking apart as the black mass surrounding Mew's body was forced off. The demon clung on by the thimble strands, shrieking in utter agony.

Justek's eyes opened with a glint and he moved forward, thrusting his burning swords together into the demon's form. The tips of the blades dug into the underside and ripped his mass right off of the host body. And then, the demon stiffened up, his ceaseless flailing forced to rest.

"I...I can't move!" He screamed through his agape fangs, with the blue fire burning across his entire body, "These flames...W-What are they doing to me?!"

"They have hardened your form so you can no longer escape. Now you are as touchable and mortal as every creature you've ever despised and slain..." Justek stared the demon in the face with little more than the calm he'd worn throughout this battle.

"D." tried to scowl, but true to the dragon's words he couldn't do it. Instead he threw his rage forth in a vocal fashion, "Justek...! Just...just how far ahead did you plan for this?!"

Justek refused to answer. And the demon thus continued to do nothing but scream, "This...was this your goal?! To take revenge on me for everything I've done?! Then why...why can I not feed on your anger?! Where is your fear?! Your vengeance?!"

"Anger? Fear? Vengeance?" Justek chuckled quietly to himself, "Yes, I suppose I did once struggle with those emotions. If my younger self saw you now, the sight of your miserable face would've thrown me into an uncontrollable frenzy..."

"But you'd be surprised at what a little time in solitude can do for one's perspective. And so...I actually wish to thank you, demon."

"T...Thank...ME?!" "D." hissed in voluntary revulsion.

"Yes. You stole a great many things from me...But your actions also blessed me with the love of two wonderful children. You took away my hope, only to give it back to me. And it was that new hope that allowed me to shed the naivete of my youth and strive to achieve my ambitions by any means necessary."

"Y-You...!"

"D." was brought silent by a massive chasm of light opening up behind him, burning him from contact.

"If vengeance is what you seek, then you shall find it waiting for in the next life. When your body has ceased to feel, when your mind succumbs, then your rotting soul will be feasted upon in the afterlife by all those you've slain."

Justek took one major step forward and "D." could do little but continue to shriek in defiance, "Nonono! Anything but this! I beg you! Do not imprison me in the light!"

"Your role in this story is over demon. And it was little more than bit note to begin with...Farewell." Justek calmly took one more step forward and shoved the demon straight into the gap, throwing him off for good. He then pulled his swords out and shut the way behind, with only a hair-long strand of darkness managing to poke through.

_Inside..._

Mew watched the remains of "D.'s" hold on him disintegrate and let out a very well-deserved deep breath. He then noticed the flames on his hand and started shaking it off.

"Whoa! Where the heck did those come from?!" He had to shake it for quite a while before they went away. Then he rubbed his hand and started turning towards Alex.

"But hey, we did it! We got rid of-"

Alex was surrounding by a pale glow and wore a smile that Mew hadn't thought possible for him to have. While Mew looked on in confusion his brother said, "Don't act so surprised. I was only meant to be here temporarily."

"Y-Yeah but..." Mew waved his hand out and around while saying, "Does it have to be this soon? We didn't get a chance to talk."

"You thought you could get something outta me that'd convince my mean ol' future self to start thinking straight?" Alex jokingly prodded Mew in the chest and said, "You're supposed to be the older one right now, start acting like it."

Mew slowly brought his hand to his chest and felt warm there. Alex was already more than half of the way gone, and Mew could feel him leaving both physically and spiritually.

Even though this wasn't the real deal, this Alex closed his eyes and seemed to feel melancholic about his predicament. Under his breath Mew could have sworn he was muttering something kind, but couldn't find the right way to express it.

Instead, Alex tilted his head back slightly and said, "Hey Mew."

"What's up Alex?" Mew softly replied.

"...You've got to let me die."

He faded away, and Mew started to losing consciousness...

On the outside, Justek lowered his swords to the ground and quietly released the breath he'd been holding in this whole while. He reared his head towards the ceiling, and felt a great weight sliding off his neck.

His whole body shrank back down to normal size, returning him to his normal form. He pushed his staff back together and lowered his head with both eyes closed. With one more sigh, he relaxed into place and brushed a bit of dirt off his left shoulder.

"It is done..." He murmured as he began to turn around.

"...Where...do you think you're going?" He paused, a single drop of sweat rolling down the back of his neck as he looked back.

Mew was standing up. His skin looked burnt, his right arm was blackened and dry from all the blood "D." had twisted out. And yet, he didn't look like he could ever fall down. His head wasn't up all the way, but Justek felt he was being stared at by a pair of suns.

A chill coursed through the dragon's veins and he tensely bit his lower lip upon Mew saying, "We're...not done fighting yet."

Justek approached Mew, stopping a few inches away. He looked down upon the boy's face and used the top of his staff on his chin to hold his head up. His eyes were struggling to stay open, and his smile wasn't even half as strong as it'd normally be.

Yet Justek felt something looking into the boy's eyes now. A reflection, staring him back. The one truth the demon stated was that Mew did indeed wear a familiar face. And it dragged the dragon's heart into an endless sea of sadness.

He closed his eyes, lowered the staff to the front of Mew's neck, and whispered in an appreciative tone, "You fought harder than many others this day, young Mew...Hold your head up high with pride. This is cause for celebration, not despair. But it bears repeating..."

With one gentle tap Justek made the young Overlord stumble back and quickly fall towards the ground. And he watched, gazing with a lifeless stare, "Your role in this story...is over."

But the ground was not where he'd lay to rest. He was caught up in the arms of his brown-haired angel, who had arrived within Justek's time frame.

And with her, came the other two Elemental Overlords. Riku grabbed the abandoned, tied up Phoenix of Destruction and dragged him along, his widened eyes shifting between his fallen brother and the face of his enemy.

"M-Mew!" Kairi proclaimed, her frightening, shrunken pupils darting down to the discordant shape of the boy's right arm.

And of course, the boy shrugged off the pain to have a laugh at the situation, "H-Hey...What took you guys so long?"

Justek began a slow, methodical clap to draw in the eyes of all four of his guests. Anger, confusion, indifference, he could feel these emotions coming off so clearly from all of them.

He took his staff out from under arm and planted it on the ground to the right. He then stared them down and cracked a mild smile as he greeted them, "At last, all of you have gathered here to the promised location."

Riku narrowed his eyes and glared him down, "So you're Justek..."

Kairi wrapped her arms around Mew and lashed out at their enemy bitterly, "You bastard! Why did you single Mew out?!"

The Phoenix of Destruction was fortunately forced to be quiet right now. Justek chuckled to himself at his expense, then moved on to more important matters.

"He simply arrived first. Perhaps you should have moved just a little faster to be by his side, Kairi Aurora." He knew speaking on friendly terms would only fuel the girl's rage. But he had no fear or concern of either party retaliating. Mew lying defeated served as the perfect deterrent.

And they would only get angrier soon enough. Justek motioned his staff towards the Phoenix of Destruction and fired a quick beam through his bindings, barely grazing his body. Riku and Kairi shifted their attention to the Phoenix of Destruction as he rose to his feet and threw the broken aura off.

He then tore the strap off his mouth and released his breath nice and loud to bring discomfort to those who had trapped him.

"We should thank you...Justek Arcavira..." The Phoenix gleamed over his shoulder with a crimson haze in his eyes, "If we weren't going to kill you, that is."

"Death is a welcome gift. But from you? Hardly worth my notice." Justek responded with a smile.

The Phoenix's eyes narrowed and he turned around, his body still battered and bloodied from his encounter with Riku and Kairi. Justek thus took his staff and pointed it beside him, opening a rift filled with a bunch of different colored energies.

"I can see you require some refreshments. Take in as much as you need." Justek narrowed his gaze as the Phoenix instantly thrust his arm into the rift, while the others felt helpless to stop him from regaining his full power.

"You're making a foolish mistake. We could already kill you..." He tore his flaming arm out of the rift and burned a shadow over his face, "Now this will be a slaughter."

Riku's arm twitched and began to rise. Justek waggled his staff around in the air and chided him like a child, "Ah ah ah. Lets not get ahead of ourselves here."

He tucked his staff under his glasses to nudge them back up and cracked a wry smile, "The cast is here but the stage is not quite finished. If you'll excuse me for a moment, allow me to fix that..."

He opened a rift to his right and stepped right in, leaving his guests behind. But he wasn't going far. Just a quick trip close to the surface of the sun.

He floated in the harsh depths of space with his breath held and the heat of the sun providing little more than a mild sweat. The perspiration was drawn out more from the sense of anticipation he felt standing on the precipice of achieving his desires.

His guests watched on, but only Mew could not see him. He squinted his eyes, muttering weakly for Kairi's aid, "Hey Kairi...What's...what's going on?"

"I-I don't know. But..." He could feel her hands trembling. And then, the entire universe suddenly felt like it just got a whole lot colder...

It seemed like nothing much when Justek aimed his staff at the sun and fired a black orb into it. Everything still made sense then. Even Mew could call his life normal. But there was no way to predict the coming storm...And what could truly be described as "the end of everything".

Justek returned to the arena and descending from the sky with a slow float, his staff drawn behind his back in one hand. The sun beat loudly, sending forth a solar flare across the cosmos. It was its last breath, as it soon started collapsing in on itself. The vibrant shades of red and yellow were consumed in a vortex of ebony, wrapped in a ring of dark, neon orange. Its size, beyond the scope of human understanding. It wrapped around the ship and created a massive vacuum that quickly started sucking Mercury in.

The ship itself barely budged, and the white surfaces kept things lit up. But in just this moment, the light had been robbed from the solar system.

And Justek, almost carrying a sense of pride in his stature, landed on the ground and gleamed at his guests with a pleasing smile.

"Now, let the show commence..."

Kairi's touch turned cold on Mew's skin and her arms became riddled with goosebumps. Her breathing slowed, and the beat of her heart hasten upon the back of his head.

"Y-You...turned the Sun into..."

"A black hole. Yes. But..." Justek's glasses flashed white as he touched the bridge with his finger, "You'd be ill-advised to use a _singular_ noun in this context."

Mew tried to look around past the edge of the current black hole but found nothing but the pitch black depths of space awaiting him.

"_E-Every star in the sky is...__**gone**__."_ Grim melancholy and dread filled Mew's tired bones as much as it could.

"Justek, what have you _done_?" Riku demanded to know, his voice firming up as the tension in his muscles could be felt by his comrades.

"Nothing much. I have simply turned every star across the universe into a black hole." It was hard to determine what was scarier: The scope of what he had done, or the casualness of which he described it.

"_Every_ star?" Riku remained unconvinced, "I doubt even you are that powerful, Justek."

"And you would be correct!" Justek said with praise, "But fortunately, I had the help of a little alien friend..."

He turned his gaze unto Mew and he immediately answered, "So that's...what you had Mr. Reality do..."

Any attempt to gauge Justek's motives would be interrupted by the elephant in the room...And his slow descent into ecstatic laughter. Alex came into the forefront of everyone's gaze as he walked forward, gripping his swung back head in one hand and his gut with the other.

"Hahahaha! AHAHAHAHAHA!" Alex then swung his arms out and graced Justek with his full presence, his eyes shrunk to the size of dots.

"This is PERFECT! You are exactly what we wanted you to be!" Alex grabbed the side of his head and failed to constrain his laughter.

Mew could see clearly enough to know that Justek wasn't reacting to Alex's outburst.

"With all these black holes the universe will be devoured. Every worthless living creature will be twisted apart, screaming for agony, their cries unheard," He then lowered his hand towards Justek and squeezed his fist with his face in the middle of it, "But your screams? We will personally enjoy every second of them..."

Justek lowered his staff to the ground and his cape swayed in the quiet of the arena, "So then...You shall be my next opponent, Phoenix of Destruction?"

Alex lashed his hand down to his side and grit his teeth, stepping forth without hesitation and uttering in a grizzly voice, "We will be your destruction, Justek Arcavira. You have given us the end we desired. We have no further use for you."

Justek smiled, "Ah, what a coincidence..._Neither do I_."

Alex took one step forward and so did Riku with his sword drawn to the back of Alex's neck. Alex looked back and smirked.

"Stand down, young Riku..." Justek remarked, prompting Riku to nudge the blade closer and glare harder. His hand was shaking, desperate for the blood of the Phoenix of Destruction.

"Haaaa..." Justek sighed, "Must I be the responsible one around here? You will have your turn in due time. But for now, the Phoenix of Destruction is my sole target."

"Then make me yield with those eyes of yours." Riku dared, turning his glare upon the man.

"Your mind is too strong for that," Justek admitted upfront, "But that does not mean I cannot make you yield. You leave me no choice but to invoke the Rite of Singularity."

The words caught Kairi and Mew completely by surprise, and Riku grimaced in turn.

"T...the Rite's supposed to be-"

"An Aurian technique, yes..." Justek harshly interrupted Kairi and nudged his glasses up, "My poor child, how little your mother has kept from you..."

Alex burst into laughter some more and twisted his head back, inching his neck closer to the tip of Riku's blade, "So go ahead and wound us. We can die together."

At this point Riku must have felt like he was cursed. He grunted loudly as he withdrew his blade and pulled away from the Phoenix of Destruction, who laughed him off as a coward.

"Oh don't fret...We'll continue what we started soon enough," He then turned to Justek and took another two steps forward, separating him from the people he looked down upon, "But first. Its just us...and _you_."

Mew's heart raced and he laid his hand atop his chest, feeling it throb with worry.

"_...You've got to let me die." _The subconscious specter's words echoed as he watched Alex strut confidently towards a monstrous foe he had no hope of defeating.

"Alex..." Mew muttered just loud enough for him to hear, "Don't do this...You can't win-"

"SHUT! UP! You damned clone!" He screamed and tightened his fist down by the hip, "You failed. You LOST. Now wallow in the dirt like the worm you are while we make Justek BEG for mercy."

There was too large a gap between the two Alexs, and it grew larger by the second. Mew withdrew his hand and it fell flat by his side. He still wanted to believe in Alex...But it was getting harder to want to try.

Alex lowered his arms down by his hips and Justek continued to stand there. The backdrop of a black hole was perfect for these two monsters to settle their score.

Justek levied his staff towards the Phoenix of Destruction and remarked in a soft-spoken, if not blunt tone of voice, "You can come at me however you wish, Phoenix of Destruction."

He placed it back down, turning up the confidence in his unbreakable stature, "But in the end you will die without ever having made me budge an inch. That is your one, and only fate."

"Fate? Destiny? Its all the same to us..." A subtle fire grew around Alex's body, the crisping embers burning in his ears as a grin stretched across his face, "They are just obstacles to be destroyed."

"I expected no less than whimpering barks...From such a feral _dog_," Justek's eyes narrowed, his stance turning to draw one hand out towards his foe, "Come. Confront the face of your demise."

_Next Time: A Phoenix's Rage_


	27. Chapter 26

**Justek IV: An End to Destruction**

The Phoenix took their enemy's dare without hesitation and lunged forth with their right arm full of steam. Fire erupted as they took to the sky and descended upon him like a bird preying upon a stream of salmon.

Justek pivoted his hand up and summoned a rift in the Phoenix's path, tossing them through the void so they'd wind up behind him. They slammed their hand against the ground and turned back, digging their nails until the scorched ground until they stopped.

Wobbling as they rose, they ran back towards Justek once again and slashed their burning arm across the air to send a huge wave of flame his way. Justek chortled, raising his hand to the flames burning hot as the sun and paying them no heed as they faded to nothing upon his knuckles.

The Phoenix continued their charge with a hiss of steam from their nostrils, exuding with delight. They jumped Justek from behind and nearly grabbed hold of him when suddenly the man's staff lodged itself into the right of their hip and knocked them out of the way.

The staff made a hard twist to the left, squeezing the first drops of blood from the Phoenix's flesh like a lemon, and then pulled back into its owner's grasp. Justek held the staff horizontally behind his back and peered out from beside his left shoulder.

The Phoenix's face contorted slightly as they forced themselves to the ground and rapidly thrust their hands out to hurtle giant fireballs around Justek. Their foe bathed in their crimson hate with little more than a mild, curious glance around as they dropped onto him.

The smoke that followed the explosion barely lasted as a veil, as a glimmer of light broke out and exposed a diamond surfaced energy barrier surrounding Justek. The Phoenix bit their teeth down and jerked their arms back down, arching their back from the force.

They slammed their palms upon the open air and scarred it with a gigaton bolt of lightning. It hit the barrier dead-on and shattered its way through. But Justek opened another rift and made the electricity pop out over the Phoenix where, now corrupted by the void, it smited them before they had a chance to notice.

The Phoenix strained their body to stay standing as the electricity drowned them in its fury. The ground shook, not from the lightning, but from the Phoenix manifesting their rising power as a land sweeping burst of flame. The electricity was cast aside by the swing of their hands, where each of their fingertips lit up with fire and electricity alternatively.

Justek smirked and lowered his head, then shuffled his staff into entirely his left hand and swung it down at the ground. A loose grip allowed him to flip it around and stiffen it right in line with the Phoenix's body.

The Phoenix swung their hands out one at a time, first forward and then straight up. Thick lines of the two elements clawed their way out towards Justek, running perpendicular to one another.

Justek paused, lined up his staff with the incoming attack, and then cut through them all with one swift diagonal stroke. He replaced the inbound attacks with a line up of his own dark orbs, which were lobbed through the air in differing directions, a couple even curving their flight.

Their ultimate endpoint would have them line up in the exact way they started out, but the Phoenix didn't have any consideration towards that. They drew their sword and cut them all down with one rigorous swing so hard that the air smashed into Justek. But as the man had proclaimed, he didn't even budge a centimeter.

The Phoenix flew back at Justek and cleaved their sword downward. Justek moved his hand to the bottom of his staff and swung it out to clash along the length of the blade and hit the Phoenix below the arms.

The Phoenix was pushed back but refused to be out. They went back in, dug the tip of their blade along the ground, and attempted to lob hot ash into Justek's face before the hotter flames went to work across his body.

Justek's eyes closed but he wore a dainty smile as he swung his staff down and smashed into the Phoenix's blade once more. The Phoenix brutish strength paled in comparison to the man's precise aim. Stopping the blade at that moment returned their strength back to their arms as a quivering ripple that struck down to the bone.

The Phoenix grit their teeth and hopped back, smashing into the ground with a shockwave of fire coming from their feet.

Justek peeked at the Phoenix from across their shoulder and smiled, daring to taunt this savage beast with a calm air surrounding them, "Surely you've got more in your repertoire than that, o' _peerless_ Elemental Overlord."

The Phoenix's teeth trembled then stretched out into a grin to cover most of their face. They withdrew their sword for the time being and stood upright, clutching the lip of their glove to pull it down, and with a snap of the fingers summoning absolute zero temperatures around it.

"Oh we are just getting started...Fire or ice it doesn't matter how you die Justek Arcavira...Just so long as we can hear you scream!"

The Phoenix snapped their fingers again and a ring of white appeared underneath Justek. Justek closed his eyes and his staff vanished through a pin-sized rift in the blink of an eye. He was then frozen over in a disjointed series of ice spikes.

The Phoenix rushed the ice with their fist drawn back, madly cackling the whole while. They swung out with the force of a magnitude _20_ earthquake behind it, which would easily shatter Justek apart.

Justek's staff came down from the sky, having spent the last few seconds building up momentum in the speed dimension. With a calculated descent the staff struck the top of the ice and sent cracks down through the whole thing.

When the Phoenix's punch connected the cracked ice vibrated apart from each other and gave Justek the opening to take his hand out and snag their opponent by the wrist. Justek's skin didn't feel cold, nor looked pale. He breathed out a little fog from his nose, just to rub it in.

He gave the Phoenix a little bit of his time to glare into their eyes, where a little scorn manifested from the glare, before casually tossing them behind him.

The Phoenix spun around in the air for a bit and then dropped hard against the ground. They let out a grizzly hiss and then pounded their right fist into the ground multiple times to send thick, towering walls of ice sliding at Justek.

Justek gestured their right hand out and his staff dutifully followed their command to the letter, hurtling itself through the center of the incoming ice. Justek then curled his fist up against his chest and waited until the very last second to punch directly into the edge of the hole he created.

The first ice wall stopped in place and a shockwave erupted through the hole, punching its way through the other holes made until hitting the Phoenix square in the face. The ice walls crumbled outward, breaking down to the finest, dusty snow, some of which rested upon Justek's hand as he uncurled his fist.

"Snow is at its best, when it is like diamonds made of mist..." Justek brandished his hand down by his hip and cast the snow aside, "Yet the most beauty you can muster can't even compare to dandruff."

The Phoenix removed the hand from their face and blood was dripping down their nose. With mangy, feral huffs of air they drew their tongue to lick the blood from the side of their cheek. Justek winced in his glare, and recalled his staff back to him.

The Phoenix arched their body back as they jerked their hands to the sky like a maestro performing the last note in an orchestra. Dozens of vines came to bloom from the remnants of snow, and Justek stood utterly still as they snapped around his body and gripped him in a tight vice.

The Phoenix panted and huffed as they thrust their hands back down, prepared to squeeze the life out of their ensnared prey. Justek closed his eyes and the vines began to turn black as ash. He was filled to the brim with heat and was freed in seconds.

The Phoenix hastily smashed their fist against the air to send lightning bolt after lightning bolt at Justek, all while stamping their foot forward one quaking step at a time.

Justek boldly raised their staff to the center of the lightning and captured them on the tip of the stone. He felt a slight tingle crawl up the hairs on his arm after a while.

The Phoenix pressed both feet down and with one rapturous grunt squeezed their fists together and threw out an even BIGGER lightning bolt. Even in his dragon form the electricity would have been taller than him, yet Justek cut open a rift with a gentle, upward stroke of his staff and captured it in the blink of an eye.

The static that lingered was like the remains of a thunderstorm. The air was cleansed, and Justek took a whiff of it with the expression on his face remaining neutral.

"For once you do something good for the environment and it wasn't even intentional..." He snickered and smirked.

The Phoenix clawed before their face as they curled a fist and settled it before their chest, "All you've done is cower...Your jester ways will only serve to push you into an early grave."

"Then why not make me try?" Justek said in a stern tone, "Or are your fighting skills as impotent as your brain?"

"...You asked for it." The Phoenix drew their sword and immediately set it on fire.

"Yes. I have just been soooo demanding..." Justek remarked in a soft, humored tone as they turned their body a little to the right and waved their staff along the air.

Thus when the Phoenix sent a flame cutting across the air there was a rift ready to intercept it. The Phoenix charged in and drove their sword down at Justek's face.

Justek whipped his staff back up and blocked the attack, only for the Phoenix to keep driving it down as they were being repulsed. The blade struck the ground and created a massive ashen plume of fire to sweep over Justek's body.

The Phoenix nailed their feet to the ground and lashed their blade repeatedly against the air. The amount of high-pressure air blades got to be too numerous to keep track of after the one-thousand mark.

Justek's staff suddenly thrust through the smoke and rammed into the Phoenix's gut. It started twisting in but unlike before, the Phoenix backed away before blood could be drawn. And from the ashes, Justek appeared with only a few cuts along his clothes to show for his opponent's efforts.

"Retreating? Since when have you ever cared for your own life?" Justek recalled his staff and took a hard swing to the right. From his left to the right an arch of rifts opened overhead.

The Phoenix didn't care and charged right back in. Justek shrugged and muttered "So be it" as they sent blades crafted and drawn from the void down upon the Phoenix.

The Phoenix rushed to the right and flew in after Justek. He slid his staff behind his back and flicked his left hand upon it to send it upward into the Phoenix's gut.

The Phoenix coughed and dropped to the ground, ducking out of the blades' path. They then took a swing at Justek's leg. He caught his staff on the rebound and slammed it down in the blade's path, then swung it up to strike the Phoenix's chin.

The Phoenix staggered back, where-in a few of those blades would rip right through his skin. They'd leave no wound or blood. No, the damage would be more psychological, yet would hurt more than had if the flesh been broken.

Justek watched the Phoenix's face turn red with rage as water shot from his eyes. The pain was unbearable, but not unstoppable. The Phoenix powered through it and struck at Justek's chest. There was little that could be done to hold back a foe that cared nothing about pain.

Justek gripped his staff in both hands and raised it in the path of the blade, letting go right when it hit. He swept his left foot up to the staff to turn it back upright and then, upon grabbing it, gave the Phoenix a whack across the face.

The Phoenix stumbled a couple steps right but then whipped right back into another attack. Desperate. Violent. So attuned with his inner beast that all he desired was to draw blood from his prey.

Justek tightened the grip on his staff and stabbed it towards the Phoenix's neck. The Phoenix ducked and took a hit to the back of his head, an act which Justek gave the mildest of praise, for how little it mattered in the end.

Justek let go of his staff and let it slide into a rift, where he'd use the free hand to slam down atop the Phoenix's head, and slam them to the ground with a shotgun blast of energy.

Their head laid rattled, their body flat upon the ground at Justek's feet. As fun as it'd be to watch the Phoenix try to attack from this position, Justek considered that too grave a risk for a mere whim.

So he proceeded to kick him in the skull and send him skidding far, far away. The Phoenix buried the tip of their blade into the floor to stop, kicking up tons of sparks. They then began to rise, their eyes full of red and pissed beyond words.

"Take this SERIOUSLY damn it!" They exclaimed like a petulant child.

"Serious?" Justek took ill just at the sound of that word. He closed his eyes, barely mouthing a chuckle as he shook his head. He then turned to his rather quiet audience of three and asked of them in a joking manner, "What say you three? Shall I start taking this seriously now?"

Mew was the only one who could fathom the implication of his inquiry, and stayed silent out of fear for the Phoenix's life. Not that the other two had the bravery or want to speak up. Kairi was closeted by her own doubts with the only thing keeping her from screaming was that cuddling Mew gave her comfort.

Riku didn't care what happened to the Phoenix. He was _enjoying_ this. But there was an analytical vibe to the way he was looking at Justek. Justek gave him a smirk and then turned back upon the Phoenix of Destruction as they finished standing back up.

"Silence...I suppose I'll have to choose for myself then..." Justek stationed himself upright and instantly had the Phoenix surrounded by a cage of rifts. Unlike before, they didn't even need time to be summoned.

"Then I shall be..._serious_." And his voice, once soft like a lullaby, grew deep and dark. He narrowed his gaze, kept his glasses in a permanent spot before his eyes, and thrust his staff forward at his foe.

The Phoenix was pelted with dozens upon dozens of otherworldly spheres that exploded upon contact. As he was battered around he tried to run forward and cut his way out. But what he cut down was quickly replaced with another that fired more orbs to knock him back into the cage.

The Phoenix exploded with fire and sent his heat lashing against the rifts. An inferno raged to repel the darkness as the beast charged forth, delivering a damning cut so hard it sliced through the fabric of reality on its way to Justek.

Justek stayed stiff in place and cast the fire down with his staff. He then tapped the ground with it and opened another rift, pulling a spear of dimensional energy with the stone on his staff acting as the conductor. He switched hands and clasped the spear in his right, raising it over shoulder.

The Phoenix flung forward past the rifts and would reach Justek in moments. Justek lobbed the spear forward and the Phoenix shifted to the right. Justek caught the spear in a rift, charged it up faster through the speed dimension, then hurtled it back at his foe from the front.

They barely managed to run out of the way, but nothing another run through the dimension wouldn't fix. When the spear came flying the third time it contorted the air around it like a drill and penetrated through the Phoenix's gut, stopping him completely.

As with the blades the damage remained entirely a figment of the mind. The Phoenix broke into a heavy sweat and it was only their monstrous nature that kept their heart from shutting down from the pain. They wretched their head back and gasped and wheezed, fighting the urge to scream.

Justek raised his staff to the right and a rift appeared in front of him full of uncontained energy to be unleashed upon the Phoenix. The beast was consumed and dragged off their feet into another rift by the energy, where Justek kept opening other rifts to briefly bash him against the ground before send him back into the void.

This exchange continued for a solid half-minute before Justek pulled his staff back in and slammed the Phoenix down in front of him, where the cascade of energy exemplified how helpless he truly was.

When it was done the Phoenix tried to stand, but his knees were wobbling and his back refused to stay straight. He heaved with the gruffness of a bear in heat and scowl with the ferocity of a lion towards his enemy.

Justek stamped his staff on the ground and muttered to the Phoenix, "On your feet. You do not have my permission to die yet."

"Fuck..." The Phoenix slashed their right hand back as hard as they could and blasted Justek with a massive beam of flame as they roared, "YOOOOOOOUUUU!"

Justek flared his eyes open and used a clever combination of rifts to connect with the ground far away and have the flames warp harmlessly beside him.

"You call this impotent rage a threat? Do not mock me with these snow-cold embers, Phoenix of Destruction." Justek slid out the end point of his rift back to the speed dimension and then upon catching the flames sent them on a quick trip to the void so they'd be corrupted upon delivering them back to the Phoenix.

Justek couldn't wait for the twisted flames to wash over them before speaking up in a coarse tongue, "It burns doesn't it? The pain brought on by these flames..."

The Phoenix stood there and took it, his arms positioned before his face suggesting an ulterior motive behind waiting it out. Justek subtly shook his head and remarked, "Trying to absorb the flames are we? A waste of time. There is no elemental energy for you to absorb in your surroundings."

The Phoenix's eyes widened as the man's cautionary tale quickly turned into a sourly spoken attack on his character, "Mine was not a gift to be taken lightly and yet you consumed it with a gluttonous appetite and utter disregard towards foresight."

The flames dispersed out and the Phoenix barely managed to stand. The dark embers burnt into their clothes and dried out parts of their skin, giving it a darker shade. The Phoenix drew their sword and their eyes twitched. With a bitter scowl they drew their sword back, their grip shaking subtly, but not beneath Justek's notice.

"What happened to the confidence you displayed moments ago? Did the 'worms' really wound your pride that much? Or perhaps, you never had any real confidence to begin with..."

The Phoenix grunted through their nose as they lashed their blade down at the ground and sent a growing pillar of fire after Justek. They then charged behind the man and stabbed their blade towards their spine.

Justek cut through the flames with a swift swing of his staff and then loosened the grip so when he thrust it back it'd clock the Phoenix in the gut. The Phoenix let go of their blade and grabbed onto the staff, tugging on it with an iron grip.

Justek glanced over his shoulder and tugged even harder, letting go of his weapon once his foe was drawn in, then clobbering him in the face with the back of his elbow.

Blood spurted onto the Phoenix's face and drizzled down over their mouth. The Phoenix planted their hands over their face and their gasps of agony turned muffled. Justek turned to face them and pointed his staff out, stabbing them in the chest with a bolt of black lightning from it.

The Phoenix went tumbling onto the ground, smearing the peerless floor with their blood. Yet what could put any mortal man down only made them stronger with rage. They crawled right back up onto their feet and heaved and huffed.

Justek closed their eyes and knew exactly what would happen next.

Backed into a corner, the Phoenix would reach for the Gaia Temporis to stop time. Right before that activated Justek surrounded himself in an impenetrable cage of rifts. The Phoenix would attempt to cut through, but seeing as time was stopped the rifts wouldn't disappear until time resumed.

Thus, the Phoenix cut through each of the rifts and THEN would set up a sphere of flame in front of each one to collapse upon Justek the moment time resumed. But when these series of events played out exactly as thought of, Justek had a second set of rifts ready to go a millimeter off the back of the prior set and clashed with the flames using swift bursts of light from them.

The Phoenix landed on the ground panting with exhaustion. Blood loss was only one of the causes. He was a monster in many forms, but his brain was still that of a human's. Too much rage tires a person out, and the Phoenix had been going on full tilt ever since returning "home".

Justek turned to the Phoenix and tapped the ground with his staff, standing as tall and unharmed as a newly built marble statue.

For once, Mew had no words to speak of throughout this entire battle. No. This wasn't a battle, but an act of murder. One carried out by a man whose kind-hearted words hid the heart of a terrifying beast. Justek's actions no longer held subtlety. He did not scream. He did not lash out. But he was clearly acting out of a hatred towards Alex in particular.

Mew could feel Alex's energy escape him. He had been wasting so much time and effort basing his fighting style on pure aggression that it had drained him quicker than he had likely anticipated. He was so brittle that Justek could break his skull with a finger if he wanted to.

But there was nothing he could do. Attack Justek? There'd be no surviving the Rite this time. And besides, with what energy? He was drained, and the half-dragon made it clear there was no recovery from that. Kairi was scared and Riku was quiet. They probably wouldn't help Alex anyways, even without the Rite in play...

Every option, every play in the book was worthless.

He was powerless. Completely. Powerless.

His heart felt heavy, and as he dug his tender fingertips into the ground he started to cry.

Justek nailed his sights on the Phoenix as they struggled to lift a hand. They tried to send a fireball, but Justek batted it away with the back of his left hand.

"Did you expect me to simply stand here and take your abuse, monster?" Justek remarked in a direct tone, "?I owe you _nothing_ for the freedom you helped me reclaim."

The Phoenix snarled, his throat dried with bits of his own blood. Justek narrowed his gaze and continued without pause, "I am not to be a player in this messed up narrative you've crafted for yourself. And your planned ending is little more than the irreverent fiction concocted in the mind of a rabid beast."

"Were your years of pain and suffering at the hands of Prometheus the price to pay for 'your' power? You spent no blood or sweat to earn this right. You were carried like a prince by your 'lowly' vassals, only to prove to be a thief set to cage the magnanimous soul in your coffin of vile and venom."

"And like a true king of the art you stole your prize and ran. Further and further from the truth you cannot avoid: That you robbed the true heir to the Elemental Overlord's power from his right to be a hero. Your thimble feet can trip and fall but no matter how many hearts you break, wounds you suffer, or blights you ignore...You just keep running, and running, and running."

"A facade changes nothing. A coward is a coward. Phoenix of Destruction...That is the title you heinously crafted from the ashes of the fallen? How would the Genesis Samurais look upon you now, knowing they gave their lives to sustain the livelihood of a cowardly beast?"

"The only thing human about you is your skin. And inside burns a cauldron of hate, of whom you use the soul of a proud hero as fuel. Even **I **will never understand why he chose to keep giving you second chances when all you do with them is continue to burn bridges in your wake."

"You crossed them all on a road to self-destruction and now find yourself at a dead end with me...The iron wall of which your temper tantrum cannot overcome."

"Do you not get it? Has your unearned confidence left you deaf to all but unwarranted praise? On this day. On this hour. On this **moment**, your life is forfeit, Alex Whiter. There is nothing that can save you. No one who _wants_ to save you. You can scream and shout in denial of destiny until your lungs run their course...But I have no time to heed your hypocrisy."

"Destiny did not 'choose' you to live...It chose you to die," Justek raised his left hand towards the Phoenix and the pressure in the atmosphere deepened with the slant of his glare, "And with your passing will your prisoner be freed from his torment at long last."

The Phoenix trembled, clutching the underside of their chest and snarling out a broken set of words, "Must...kill...The witch...must pay...Everyone...Everyone...pay...pay...! Kill...kill them! We...kill!"

Justek stayed his hand for a moment and looked to the Phoenix with a bit of a smile, "Ah that's right...This all started because of a witch, didn't it? She entranced the maiden of your dreams and made you believe that her betrayal was a genuine act of spite..."

The Phoenix raised their head slightly as Justek continued in a waspy tone of voice, "Or so the story goes. The witch is powerful but there are some things beyond her reach, and the maiden's heart was one of them. But at the same time...the witch was not exactly unaccustomed to making friends in places neither high nor low."

The Phoenix's pupils started to shrink, the width of their scowl shriveling.

"I guess what I'm trying to say is...All this time, your target of revenge was rather misplaced," Justek had a mild chuckle of amusement and his smile got a little wider, "But now that we're face-to-face, perhaps there's a little more you want to say to me before you die?"

The Phoenix's eyes were dumbstruck and their jaw started to drop. They froze in place, trembling to the bone.

"Am I not being clear enough? Shall I be more blunt?" Justek nudged his glasses up slightly and said, "Fine. As repayment for keeping me company during my two-thousand year solitary confinement, I did the witch a favor by taking part in her plan to turn one Shina Aurora against you. I was ill-amused at the thought of controlling the girl against her will..."

"But to put you at your lowest, and expose you for your cowardice and hypocrisy...I will say there was no cost too great to pay."

"Y-You..." The Phoenix found strength renewed in an ember growing within their heart. They started to lower their head, bathing their head in shadow.

"Do not seek pity from me monster. You did not deserve her. She gave you more tolerance than you earned and how did you repay her? By attempting to bathe the universe red in the witch's blood. And when that failed, you attempted to reduce the universe to ash, even going so far as to personally target her home."

"You...controlled her..." The Phoenix continued to grumble independently of Justek's talk.

You can claim your actions were an act of love but they were nothing more than selfish wants and desires.

"You...made her...CRY...!" The Phoenix grit his teeth, pained by the memories of her arms wrapped around his, her tears trickling down onto his blood-drenched clothes.

And now, you shall die. A life of unaccomplished dreams. A grave where you shall be buried alone in your hate...

The Phoenix slowly raised their hands up, cupping their fingers around the bottom of their glove.

Riku suddenly widened his eyes and felt a chill rushing down his spine. The atmosphere trembled. The universe wept. Silently, the thrall of Death crawled onto the mortal plain once again.

"J-Justek..." The Phoenix ripped the glove off their hand and thrust their head up, their eyes returned to their normal tint of blue as their mouth stretched to fit out their violent scream.

"JUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUSSSSSSSSSSTEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKK!"

Rainbow-colored flames burst forth from his hand and traveled down the entire length of his arm, consuming his body like wildfire. Just by seeing the flames splashing out towards them did Riku feel it necessary to get in front of Mew and Kairi and go into Chaos Form to protect them.

Justek's hair wavered and he continued to smile and chuckle. The flames lashed along his skin and made him sweat.

"Magnificent..." He muttered in awe of the flames raging out of control as they rose up into the shape of the majestic winged beast of folklore.

Alex stood in the middle, his body cloaked in shadow. He took one thunderous step forward and the flames washed over the arena, ceiling and all, in a millisecond. Riku braced himself, only to quickly succumb to weakness and feel the desire to fall to his knees.

Alex's mind was a typhoon, a jumbled mess of thoughts with only one clear concise focus. His eyes were boiling over as the flames began to erupt from within, he couldn't even feel his fist clench. What confidence he had pressing forward was buried under all this rage. Even the infinitely growing universe would fail to contain all this anger after a time.

Justek stood in wait, the pressure piling up upon his skin as his heart raced. In the blink of an eye, Alex was before him, his left hand clutching his chest while his fist was raised back.

Riku turned around in a panic and screamed, "KAIRI!"

The girl awoke from her panic long enough to slap down on the Neo Drive. But to her confusion, it was not responding. She hastily tried a few times as the snap of Alex's bones counted down the seconds before impact.

Riku and Mew sweated as Kairi said, "I-Its not working!"

"Then use the other! We don't have time damn it!" Riku exclaimed, forcing Kairi to pick the Angel Drive.

Justek peered down at Alex as with his throat dried out, all he could muster was a single word:

"Die."

The fist swung forth and the world went into chaos. The events that followed barely managed to register in Mew's mind.

Kairi seemed to be successful in giving Riku some of her aura to help protect them all. But against the incoming tidal wave of screeching flames they had to muster a pray for their survival.

They were bracing themselves against a hurricane of hate as it quickly filled the arena and blinded them to the eye of the storm. The glass refused to cave, the only bit of fortune in these rough times.

There were screams with no origin. Then there was silence. The flames were never meant to last, but did they end on their own, or from death's sweet embrace? Mew was hard-pressed to open his eyes to check and see.

He saw the world in white and assumed he'd gone to heaven. But no, it was simply the underside of Justek's ship. He lifted himself up as best he could and saw Riku standing in front of him. He was tired, but otherwise unharmed.

The same couldn't be said for the arena. The entire floor around them had been turned up and colored black, with only the lingering embers of Alex's flames painting a picture of the cause.

Nobody knew where the HELL that attack came from, but if anything could have killed Justek, it was that. But what of Alex himself? Where did he stand after that terrifying punch?

It wouldn't take long to get an answer. The trio heard an inhumane gasp and wheeze and couldn't stop themselves from looking straight ahead.

There wasn't a person standing in the black epicenter where Alex once stood. A dried up carcass covered in cracking black soot and piercing eyes looked at them all with a slacked jaw and shriveled up features. When it dragged one foot forward, Riku turned and took up a cautionary stance as though it was a threat.

It was a threat to no one but itself. If it continued to walk it might come apart, but there wasn't a single drop of energy to be felt. And yet it continued to crawl forward, raising its hand slowly like a mummy from the tomb.

"K-...Kill...I...kill...Justek...and...now...kill...y-y-you..."

There was no Justek in sight. Not even a flake of ash remained. Against all odds, Alex had _won_.

...So why then, did the black hole remain?

"Gccchkkk!" Alex squeezed out a grunt and froze in place, his head forcibly wretched back. His chest began to twist, his flesh pulled inward, and a familiar staff squeezing its way through.

The trio of onlookers stared wide-eyed in horror as the staff dragged Alex to the ground, where the agony he endured could be felt by the others. He wasn't able to scream, or groan, or do anything but pitifully claw his right hand out at empty air.

A second later Justek strolled out of a rift looking clean as a whistle, and grabbed onto the top of his staff.

"A desperate effort, but one I easily saw coming..." Justek twisted the staff in a little more to wrench out the last drops of the boy's blood. Then he began to pull it out, commenting on the nature of his survival to his prying audience.

"A small rift to redirect the impact of your punch into another part of the ground, and a second rift to hide myself away in while the flames did their job. You were too blind to see it. And the others were too scared to notice."

Justek paused and closed his eyes, adjusting his glasses back into place as his tone of voice suddenly got softer, "You know, I may have said some unkind words back there. But ultimately in spite of it all I truly don't care about what you did, but what you _could have_ done."

I was closer to Sarajin than anyone who came before or after him. He had an impeccable eye when it came to knowing when someone was hurt, or sad...He took time out of his day to help those in need, even as it whittled away at his youthful body. Yet his smile was like a captivating row of pearls. Always bright. Always shining. Never surrendering to the blood he was forced to spill in his line of work. He had the might of a God and the patience of a Saint, but never rose above the common man. And when he passed on his powers, all he could think about is for everyone else to be happy...

Justek gave a poignant glare down at Alex and whispered, 添ou lay on the ground like a worm. Your body is as black as the dirt. And even so weak you can't even stand, all you thought about was killing for your own ends. And its doubtless to me that even in your final moments, you will be left wondering where everything went wrong. You failed my best friend's legacy. _That_, is the only thing I care about when it comes to you.

When he ripped his staff free he continued walking forward slowly and snapped his fingers up by his face. Twenty black orbs appeared over Alex's body and hovered there.

"Also, you made me budge. Consider that all the credit you'll ever receive." Justek coldly turned his back on the corpse and raised his fingers for the second, damning snap.

Mew didn't know what came over him when he opened his mouth to scream, "STOP!"

It made Justek pause and widen his eyes, taken aback by what Mew demanded next of him, "Please...Hasn't he suffered enough?! Why do you have to kill him?! If someone has to die, take me instead!"

Justek stared deep into Mew's eyes with a serenity unbefitting what he set out to accomplish. But he closed his eyes, answering Mew's request with a hearty smile and middling chuckle.

"You never cease to surprise me young Mew...But there is no comparing your worth. The Phoenix of Destruction chose his fate. And I...have chosen mine."

Justek snapped his fingers and the orbs began to whir and glow. Mew opened his eyes and stared straight into Alex's. They were trembling, but lacked the means to make tears. He clawed his hand out before his face, stretched his fingers, and began to mouth Mew's name...

And that last act was denied by the fall of orbs, and the utter immolation of his remains. Justek gave no attention to the flash of light from the blasts, and muttered to himself, "Farewell Sarajin, my old friend."

Not a single cell was left of the one called Alex Whiter. Mew was the only one to mourn for him, and he would not get to do so for long.

Justek perked up with a smile and didn't even wait a second to reduce the last few minutes to the worth of a distraction as he remarked, "Now then...Which one of you shall be my next opponent?"

The quiet was broken by Riku's footsteps going forward. He clutched his fists by his side and whispered back, "Kairi...Keep my brother safe."

He stood with confidence from an unknown source and spread his four wings. Justek nodded at him a couple times and gestured his left hand in greeting.

First Rebirth, then Destruction, and finally Balance...You shall complete the trio, young Riku.

"Quit acting so cavalier about this Justek." Riku firmly spoke up, drawing in the man's curiosity.

"Oh?" He remarked with a chuckle.

"You knew I was going to be your next opponent before I even got here. Because you're clairvoyant, just like Auris Aurora."

"What?" Kairi muttered.

"Y-You've gotta be kidding me..." Mew thought at first, yet couldn't deny that some things would make more sense if that was true.

Justek tapped the side of his head a couple times with his staff and gave a knowing smirk to Riku, "One of my best kept secrets. Not even Auris knew about it. So I must ask...How DID you piece it together, Riku?"

"You left plenty of bread crumbs. All the times where our attempts to defuse threats got interrupted...The 'coincidence' of me, Kairi and the Phoenix of Destruction running into each other in your ship..." Riku glared at Justek and turned his head aside, "And it loathes to me to admit it, but in a straight fight the Phoenix of Destruction was stronger than you. You beat him only because you memorized his moves ahead of time and reacted to them perfectly."

Justek loosened the grip on his staff to clap his hands slowly, "Bravo. I knew you'd figure it out if I left behind clues."

He then gripped the staff and flashed a smirk Riku's way, "But what shall you do with that knowledge?"

Riku closed his eyes and the whole arena began to shake. It started as a subtle tremor, then grew into an actual quake. Golden embers flickered into existence at Riku's feet, spreading out into a ring that kept him safe.

"There's no point in keeping this trick up my sleeve now..." Riku's irises were neon and multi-colored when he opened them, as the golden flames crawled up his body like a long robe.

"I'm ending this now, Justek." His words started echoing with the voices of many hims behind it. And his power began to rise to incredible heights.

The golden flames flew out from his back below the angelic wings, which rose while the demonic wings lowered. They solidified into golden phoenix wings, and six of them gave Riku the appearance of a seraphim. So it was only fitting that the flames gifted him with an actual robe to accompany his new form. The robe was mostly golden, but had bits of the other elements mixed in as thin, wavy streaks. The sleeves stretched down to his wrists, which were bound in golden light. And finally, Riku's hair turned pure silver.

His new form was emblematic of the apex of an Elemental Overlord's power. Nature, Water, Wind, Electricity, Earth, Ice, Fire, Light AND Dark could all be sensed within Riku at this moment. Just by levitating off the ground a warm pulse of elemental energy spread through the ground and ease his brother's weary mind.

"Wow..." Mew said as his face relaxed into a smile, "Go get 'em Riku!"

Riku spread his hands out and pure elemental energy shone before the palms, each as big as his head. Justek hopped five feet back and drew his staff down to his hip. He was calm, eerily so, but that confidence was misplaced.

Riku narrowed his glare and declared, "The ultimate power of the elements, MY Genesis Form, will be the face of _your_ demise, Justek!"

_Next Time: God Against Demon_


	28. Chapter 27

**Chapter 27: Justek V: Pride and Power**

The next stage of battle began as a tense stand-off between Riku and Justek. Sort of like a showdown between cowboys, if either wielded a gun with the power of a God that is.

The revelation that Justek was clairvoyant meant he saw Riku's first move coming from a mile away. Mew knew nothing about this form at first glance other than that it was super, super powerful. But...was it enough to match up with that form the man kept tucked away?

Justek was bold starting off in his most basic state, gesturing towards himself with only his staff acting as protection. The moment the man moved his staff Riku's power overflowed from his body and a surge of pressure flew straight towards Justek.

Justek rallied his staff to the front of his body right as three resounding impacts struck it, leaving pockets of air as they shoved him back five feet each. Justek grunted out of effort to hold back and then called forth a rift above the side of his head.

Riku appeared before Justek before either party could blink, his eyes flared open in reprehension, and the rift was sliced through by an invisible force.

Justek's cockiness was marred with surprise and a smile as he took the brunt of three more impacts across his body, his glasses nearly sliding off his face.

He propped them back up by one finger and remarked in a cavalier tone, "You plan to make me work for this victory, don't you?"

A blurred flash of color swept up from Riku's right hand, calling a wave of rainbow-colored energy up from the ground to sweep over Justek diagonally.

Justek pushed forward through the wave, tattering his cape as dark energies were summoned at the ends of his staff. He thrust one end out and then twirled for the other, manifesting the energy as spheres.

Riku shifted to the left and left behind a solid afterimage of himself to catch Justek's attacks and thrust them right back. Only then did it vanish.

While Justek tossed the rebound energy into his rifts he bared himself open to Riku's full frontal assault. The boy appeared directly in front of him with hand raised and with a casual gesture of elemental energy, pounded his whole body with a shockwave.

The attack rippled the air all the way back to the glass, with Justek shoved half the distance back. A glint of confidence flashed in the man's smirk as a rift appeared behind to catch him.

Riku warped between the two, planted one hand on the back of Justek's skull, and then drained the rift dry of its darkness to funnel it into his other hand.

A wave of black light would flood over Justek's eyes for the brief instant before a pillar of black flame erupted over his body.

Justek turned and hopped out of the flames, showcasing an indomitable resolve against the embers that melted and burned through his clothes.

He held his staff out at an angle to block against Riku's next three strikes, but then the boy's priority merely shifted to striking away at his stomach faster than Justek could respond.

The man forced his mouth shut, a trickle of blood slipping through regardless. Even while the attacks were still connecting Riku warped before the man, hunched over with his knuckles taut.

A streak of color whipped out from both his hands one millisecond at a time, striking at Justek's gut. This time the angle propelled him high off the ground.

Riku summoned large rainbow-colored orbs in Justek's path and set them off when he got close, bouncing the man around like a pinball across an entire minefield of the things.

But as Justek flew towards the last of them he glanced over his shoulder and swiped through the orb with a rift to "consume" it. And then it'd do the same to him, were Riku not quick on the draw.

Riku's right hand rose and with a flick of the wrist best reserved for swatting a fly, he cut through the rift with pure air. And Justek, after a shocked pause, watched as his armor was split through the middle, with blood cut out from his skin.

Riku slowly lowered his hand and took in a few deep breaths. His skin was moistening up, but only at a paper thin level.

Justek instantly plummeted to the ground on his feet but his right knee started to bend on landing. He touched the wound on his chest and raised the bloodied hand before his face.

"Not bad..." He muttered as he squeezed his hand into a fist, the blood oozing between the fingers.

He thrust his fist down and summoned a dozen rifts to surround Riku, striking all at once with spears formed from the void.

Riku warped a few feet out of the way and glared at Justek. In the next instant, Justek was once more pushed onto the defensive. He called forth three rifts to catch Riku's attacks, only for them to shatter to the winds.

In that brief moment Justek turned to his side and summoned a ton more rifts to fire burning lasers around the frame of Riku's body.

Riku DID tuck his wings in but judging from how quickly he approached Justek unharmed it proved to be little more than over-preparation.

Justek summoned a massive rift to take the blow for him, but even the edge of Riku's shockwave knocked him back. But not far enough that he couldn't take a stab at him with his staff.

Riku vanished, leaving behind an afterimage to tightly squeeze onto the staff and drag Justek in closer for a clearly visible punch to the face.

This knocked him back into the real deal, who backhanded the man in the face to twist him around so that the next blow to the chest would shatter his chainmail.

Justek staggered, but exerted no signs of feeling a struggle. His breathing was steady, his stature was stalwart, and his expression bore only a mild grimace of pain despite the sharp bits of chainmail digging into his open wound.

"On your _feet _Justek. I'm not done with you yet." Riku said with a baritone growl to his voice.

"Do you honestly have time to fool around?" Justek spat back with a mild chuckle, only to take another blow to the stomach for it. A bit more blood trickled out his mouth.

Justek raised his staff and gave it a twirl, launching an orb from both ends every fifteen degree angle. The orbs bounced around rapidly but kept close to Riku. Justek then began opening a towering rift behind him to slip inside.

The number of orbs decreased as Riku swiped them out of the air, adding to the size of the ones clutched in each hand. He then combined the two orbs that were already each bigger than his head, and added his own energy to the mix. The black tint was flushed out for gold. The energy spent barely a drop in the pond for him.

Justek braced himself as the orb crashed into his body and exploded, filling a half of a mile space with blinding white light.

Riku slowly lowered his hands and grimaced upon noticing that Justek's presence had suddenly gone the moment his attack hit.

"_He got away..." _Into a rift, no doubt. But there was nowhere for him to run. He was hiding, stalling for time...Time that Riku couldn't afford to waste.

Riku glared at his surroundings and punctured through the fabric of reality with raw power. He found the void beyond, but couldn't catch a trace of Justek's presence no matter how many holes he opened up.

"_Where ARE you?" _He said with his eyes flared open as far as possible.

The air trembled. A soft, bestial thump entered Riku's eardrums. The air shook, the sound growing louder. The air **quaked**, turning the world upside-down in Riku's head. The sound beat like it was coming from right next to Riku. He swiveled his head left, where the sky was beginning to crack like brittle ice.

"_What is this...sensation?" _Grim, like the foul stench of death, did _something_ crawl free from the cracks in the world. The cracks spread across fifty feet of space, with bits of black flame seeping through.

Riku cautiously started stepping back, his eyes darting at the unconscious movement of his feet as a bead of sweat trickled down his cheek.

"_Sorry to keep you waiting..." _A guttural growl penetrated through oblivion, followed by the obstinate barrier of reality falling to pieces against the charge of a truly nightmarish sight.

An ebony, sapphire winged dragon towered over Riku wielding flaming slags of rock the size of houses. The identity of this inhumane beast, Justek, was given out by the drape of hair on its scale-bound head.

Justek came at him full swing and Riku narrowly took to the sky to avoid it. He then zipped around clockwise with his heart racing and pounded Justek with full-force strikes.

The dragon barely flinched and raised his higher sword to clock Riku in the gut with its tip. Riku was knocked back a few feet and felt some throbbing in his stomach.

"_His reflexes are faster now...Then I've got to strike even faster!" _Riku flared his eyes open and his blurring fists nailed the sides of Justek's body with invisible blasts the size of the average human.

The dragon slid a way's to the side but began to swivel with an inflamed mouth postured towards his enemy. A garish cone of black and blue flames scorched the skies, forcing Riku to the ground.

He flew straight at Justek and hooked him in the gut with his burning knuckles. A rupture of golden flames sliced through the air towards the opposite ends of the arena, but for all that force put into it the punch only dragged the mighty beast a few feet back.

Justek raised his swords high and slammed them down in an engulfing breadth, throwing Riku into the eye of a mighty typhoon. Riku forced his body still and swiped his hands before his face, sweeping up tidal waves of elemental energy against the sides of his foe.

Justek lowered his wings and their thin membranes were nevertheless the perfect shield against the assault. Riku flared his eyes open and ripped his hands out, pulling them straight back in. The waves of energy danced into and out of Justek's range, trying to overcome the barrier of his wings.

Riku left behind an afterimage to control the tide and charged Justek head-on, smashing his fist into his chest to knock him back. Justek immediately crossed his swords to block the follow-up punches.

Riku swung his arms out and sucked the loose energy back into his body. He then thrust it out in the form of twin-sided spiral dragons, which drilled into Justek's blades and forced him to stay on the defensive.

Riku flew over the swords and dove down at the beast's head, where another onslaught of flames awaited. Riku's wings folded over him like a sphere and kept the brunt of the flames at bay while he channeled enough energy down his arms to overpower it.

Justek widened his mouth even more and the flames roared in Riku's ears, deafening him to all but them. He continued to press on, straining to pull his wings back so that his energy would be released at the exact right moment.

As he fired the beam Justek swung both his swords up in an arch. The two exchanged blows but it seemed as though Riku took the worse of it, while Justek had to struggle briefly with the quandary of losing his balance.

Riku spread his wings to recover and then with a snap of the fingers had the dragon surrounded with golden orbs. He set them off without thinking about it, giving Justek barely the time to retaliate.

Yet retaliate he did, as a few rifts opened up to send beams slicing through the orbs. A few explosions still battered into the beast, blasting some of the scales from his skin.

Riku dove down and rapidly punched the air, bombarding Justek with pure force after he had already long since landed on the ground and hopped away.

He swiped his arms up and a wave of elemental energy glided through Justek's body from the front, carrying more than enough force to drag his feet off the floor.

Bathed in his slime-ridden sweat, Justek shoved his head through the wave and hurtled a black-fire blast at Riku. Riku raised his hand towards it but a rift got in his way, capturing the fire before his attack could shatter both of them.

Riku jerked to the right and another rift opened up to send the fire out. He swiped his hand out but another rift was there to provide back-up right as it was getting sliced through.

Riku widened his eyes and felt the disharmony bearing down his neck. But it was a waste to play the dragon's game of distractions. He turned his heavenly eyes upon the beast of Hell and flew after him at beyond light speeds.

Justek had engaged a dozen or so rifts to line the path between them with beams made from the white-hot heat of a newborn star. Riku swerved and barreled his way around the flames, his body feeling weightless against the air no matter how hard and sudden he had to jerk away.

He locked his fist back behind his head and smashed it into Justek's chest. The dragon dug his claws deep into the floor to hold his ground with Riku flying right in for a second attack.

Justek chuckled and took the dare his foe proposed, but spiced things up by throwing more rifts into the mix. Right when Riku was about to strike a massive one appeared to his right and he jerked hard to the left, dancing on the edge of the beam for a couple seconds before suddenly breaking for the sky.

Riku curved his flight over Justek and pounded away at his body with raw force blasts. The dragon bent his knees slightly and then leaped straight up, his gargantuan form scorched over in black flames.

Riku backed away as Justek spun around, expanding the reach of his flames. Riku closed his eyes and focused his power into the form of a thousand body-high swords. His heart let out a short, heavy beat and for a second he could feel his body go numb. But it only delayed his summoned swords by a second.

As the sweat grew thicker on his skin he thrust his hand out and sent the hail of blades after Justek. It easily cut a swathe through the wall of flames, but then a third of them were shattered upon the wind released from a slash of Justek's sword.

Ten or so clipped the dragon's wings while a few impaled into them. Justek lunged ahead, a few more of the blades burrowing into his flesh with seemingly little effect beyond making him roar. Riku's eyes enlarged as he hastily squeezed his fists and filled the air with bright, miniature explosions.

Justek burst through the lingering smoke and drove his blades down into the side of Riku's body. Riku dove out of the way and pounded the open wounds on Justek's chest with raw energy. The dragon kept spinning, hammering his tail into his chest.

Blood trailed out into the sky as Riku was sent crashing into the ground, dislodging the tiles for yards around. Riku quickly got up and felt the blood leaking onto his arm. He glanced at it briefly and then squeezed his fist, punching it up towards his foe.

Justek rolled to the left amid his descent and launched massive fireballs at the ground. Riku braced himself and flung his hands by his hips with energy called down to them. The fireballs cratered the floor with domed shaped explosions but Riku warped his positioning perfectly to evade the brunt of them.

He thrust his hands up and sent a particularly thick wave of energy into Justek. The dragon stopped in place, fighting hard against the energy.

Riku called forth four orbs around Justek and shoved them into him instantly. The explosions weren't enough to let the energy overwhelm, so Riku attempted it again. Then Justek used his rifts to catch the orbs and throw them down into Riku, corrupted faintly by the void.

Riku backed away and fed more of his energy into the wave, shoving Justek further back into the sky. The dragon then tossed his swords into a pair of rifts, with another pair quickly opening at Riku's sides to send them his way.

Riku continued to go back and leaped like an acrobat between the narrow gap in the blades, landing gracefully as the blades were flung at him again. Riku charged forward and fired more energy into his attack.

Justek summoned a massive rift directly above Riku, scorching the way forward with a beam of white fire. Riku paused and for that moment, was left vulnerable to the incoming blades.

He swung his hands out to catch them by the tips but found his arms bending in rather fast. He'd have to channel most of his strength to force them back, during which Justek successfully breached his attack and came barreling after him.

He launched a fireball into the white hot beam, feeding it so fast it quadrupled in size and strength. Riku widened his eyes and pulled back, getting hit by half the ensuing explosion in the process.

The ground rumbled and Justek came sliding along, snagging his swords with impeccable timing and taking a broad swing with them both inches away from Riku.

Riku held his ground and decided to take the hit, since it would ultimately just knock him back and give him the distance to mount a safe counterattack.

From the moment this clash of titans had begun to now, three minutes had passed. And their two onlookers could barely track what was happening.

Mew remained rested upon Kairi's lap with her body no longer even having the strength within to tremble in fear. Yet the tide of the battle seemed to being flowing favorably enough for her to remark, "R-Riku's going to beat him!"

"W-Well..." Mew dryly commented, "You'd know better than me right now. I...I can barely sense a thing."

And between his exhaustion physically and emotionally, Mew wasn't faring much better. But just cause his senses were dulled didn't make him blind. Pure elemental energy flowed through the battlefield out of Riku.

"_Riku's constantly leaking energy...If he's not aware of that, then..." _

The brutal exchange between god and beast came to a temporary standstill when Justek towered himself over Riku and grinned his bare fangs to say, "May I have a moment of your time, young Riku?"

Riku's eyes flared open and he thrust his fists out to pound at Justek's midsection. Justek failed to cross his swords his time and let out a mild grunt of pain. He then remarked in amusement, "I suppose that's a no..."

Riku hastened to Justek's side and smashed his fist under his arm where it was most vulnerable. Justek tucked his arm in and spun to face Riku as he was knocked away.

"Then if I must, I'll do this the hard way..." He said with a sigh, "Have you no curiosity as to what my plan is?"

"No." Riku firmly replied and thrust his fist out towards Justek. Justek swung his sword to get in the fist's path, then took his other sword down to deflect the next punch.

On the third attempt with both swords Riku caught them and pushed them aside, expunging a blunt force shockwave from his body to shove Justek back. He then surrounded them him with elemental orbs and set them off.

Justek covered most of his body with his blades and peered through the top, firing a flame blast at Riku before then remarking through his smoke-covered fangs, "Let me start over then..."

Riku backhanded the fire blast and singed the skin, then cupped his fist and smashed a particularly loud punch into Justek's chest so he wouldn't have to hear him babble on.

"Ghhh...!" Justek grunted and slashed his blades out, sending a huge flaming "X" after Riku. Riku sliced through it vertically with his bare hand and the force carried over to Justek, who blocked it with one blade.

"I know you have heard of the 'higher-ups'." Justek said, giving Riku mild pause.

"What _about_ them?" He replied coldly, remaining laser-focused on his enemy as he fired a few punches across their body. Justek carefully swung his blades around to deflect the attacks to the ground, then launched a few fireballs into his rifts to keep Riku on his toes.

"They have governed the universe since long before either of us were born." Justek set one of his fireballs free but Riku casually caught it in his left hand. It gave an unnatural glow to his eye as he waved it in front of his body to catch the other fireballs, and then launched it back at its full size.

Justek chomped down on it while simultaneously swinging his swords down, sending walls of flame for Riku to avoid.

"They run a totalitarian regime, making entire worlds and even their strongest entities bend to their knee."

Riku looked away for a moment in thought only to glare Justek down and remark, "Thanos said something similar about them. You're just wasting your breath."

Riku rippled the air with a string of punches climbing up the breadth of Justek's body. The dragon lined up his sword perfectly to block them and continued to speak, "You require proof, to which I can barely offer any. The scope of those monster's crimes is too grand to commit to example."

Riku warped below Justek's reach and smashed his fist into the underside of the beast to get him off his feet. Then he rose and clobbered him in the gut to send him hurtling straight into the glass.

"And even if you could provide proof, _I don't care._" Riku gripped his fists and spread his wings. He threw his entire body into a single mighty shockwave set ablaze with golden flames. Justek found himself pinned to the glass, his arms and legs all spread out while his blades were let go of.

"Heh..." Justek chuckled, letting his blades drop into rifts while he peeled off and landed on the ground, "But you do care...About the lives of the innocent."

As Justek's blades sped to-and-fro out of the rifts to keep Riku on the move, the dragon continued to spout his opinion, "And in the entire multiverse, no higher number of murders have been committed than under those three's omniscient eyes."

Riku caught the blades by crossing his arms and then strained himself trying to shove them aside.

"For any timeline that goes off on the unbeaten path, a fate of completely undignified erasure awaits them. More than even a centillion lives lost to pay for the mistake of one, and the unjust judgment of the three..."

Riku's eyes flared open and with one hefty grunt he shoved the blades off to the ground and summoned energy towards his palms, "You don't have any proof of this!"

As he launched a geyser of energy to overwhelm Justek's body, the dragon called back his blades and then hid away with a massive rift to avoid the attack. From the shadows, he continued to chide Riku.

"_I am clairvoyant. I see all, from where I begin, to where I __**end**__. I have gazed into oblivion a thousand-fold and you dare think you have a foot to stand on as you judge me? If so, where is your proof that I am __**wrong**__?"_

Riku turned around and trailed the sound of Justek's voice to directly behind him. Justek charged out of a rift flipping forward with his blade front and center. Riku folded his wings over and summoned a barrier to shield the brunt of the attack as the dragon flew overhead.

Justek bent his head back and launched a fireball too close for Riku to dodge, however, and a pillar of fire erupted over his body.

When Justek landed after, he gaze into the black flames and remarked, "The will of your heart isn't evidence. The disgust your bear towards me isn't either. You decided I was your enemy long before I stood in your way."

Riku spread his wings to disperse the flames and warped over to Justek, striking him up along his chest. The dragon grit his fangs and waited for him to get close to launch a point-blank fireball. Riku crossed his arms to block it then rammed into Justek's neck.

A ragged cough overcame the beast as he nearly toppled over onto his back, only to be caught in another of his rifts. But Riku then dove down after him, grabbing him by the skin of his neck and tearing him right out of the void.

Justek spun around and suspended in place by his wings, launching a few explosive fireballs across the ground. Riku surrounded Justek with element spheres and set them off, the two getting caught up in the blasts at the exact same time.

But while this silenced Justek it did nothing to make Riku fire back at him viciously for the earlier comment, "Wrong. You're my enemy because there's nothing just about what you're doing. How many lives are you endangering right now, Justek?!"

He kept pounding the dragon with raw force, sending him higher up as he tried to answer the question, "There is a fatal flaw in the 'higher-ups' power. They are intrinsically tied to the worlds, including the celestial bodies that inhabit them. By turning all the suns and stars into black holes it creates a temporal paradox on a scale never-before-seen."

Justek slashed his swords down multiple times and as hard as he could to hold Riku against the ground while he dropped down. He then slammed his blades down, forcing Riku to grab hold of them before his back was pinned to the floor.

"Right now I can only imagine those tyrants are using all their power to keep my black holes at bay. But when the time is right I will enter their realm and slaughter them while they're crippled. Thus, finally putting an end to their reign."

"As for the lives that will be lost in the process...I used my clairvoyance to determine the best possible time to set about my goals, when the stars and sun are aligned the farthest from inhabitable worlds...But even so, there are some worlds that will be destroyed, others uninhabitable from a lack of sunlight. I project the death toll to be over a trillion, at best."

"Then...GHHH!" Riku dug his feet into the ground and shoved Justek's blades up, the power exploding out of his body like wildfire as he tightened his fists and made the whole arena shake, "I reject everything about you and your plan!"

He sprung forth, drilling his fists into Justek's chest until rising out from over his head. The dragon paused, only to spasm when his innards were turned around, forcing him to spew blood from his mouth. Riku dove down and hammered his fists atop Justek's head, and for once the dragon was forced to the ground.

Riku bounced back and the moment he landed, put his hand to his chest and felt his heart beat loudly. His entire body went numb for twice as long, and the sweat on his skin turned thicker and visible.

Justek pulled his swords off the ground and used them like crutches. As he slowly dragged himself up he growled, then chuckled aloud. He turned his piercing gaze upon his enemy and remarked, "It has been too long since I've known the taste of dirt..."

"But your edge...It is strong, yes, but also lacking. No, unrefined is a better way of putting it," Justek got halfway up before it truly became clear that he could stand with little issue, "And you know **why** your resolve manifests as a mere half-tempered blade?"

"Because you cannot make the sacrifices truly needed to protect what you care about..." Justek's voice turned grizzly and blunt, "I know the cost of my plan is steep but to face a monster you can be nothing BUT a monster."

Justek pointed his blade at Riku, "You've sought power ever since that dreadful day. For every peak you overcome you stray further from your humanity...And yet, you refuse to make that last leap towards rejecting it."

"Even if you were somehow to best me how can your answer the problem of the 'higher-ups'? Empathy and humanity are deaf to the ears of those beyond mortal understanding. Their blood must be answered for in their language of death and violence."

"Your brother had a demon in his head. The Phoenix of Destruction was his own monster...But what about you, young Riku?" Justek cautiously motioned his blade back towards the ground, "What is the monster **you **keep hidden under your skin and bone?"

Riku widened his eyes and calmly floated upright. He then closed his eyes in deep thought, _"He's just taunting me, trying to get me angry so I won't think straight. He's already taken a lot of damage. He can't keep this up for much longer."_

Riku narrowly opened his eyes and glared straight at Justek. A flicker of golden fire crawled up his fists, then grew larger to spread across the length of his arms.

"Justek...this is only the second time I've used this form. But this...will be the first time I'll using it at 100% of its full power!" The flames spun around Riku's body and consumed him completely. The arena went through an uncontrollable earthquake and both Kairi and Mew were shoved back from the onslaught of pressure exuding off Riku's body.

"R-Riku...! Stop!" Mew exclaimed, to no avail.

Justek chuckled and stood still as the whole battlefield was changed completely, becoming covered in a flood of golden energy. Power did not just erupt out of Riku's body. It came with an overwhelming calm, and silence.

The flames did not part from his body so much as they were reshaped to resemble a human figure. The wings on his back were now detached and held together by a platinum halo. His arms and feet lacked fingers and toes, and the flames fluttered about like they were in the wind. His eyes were wisps of silver stuck in a narrow glare.

"Is this what you wanted to see, Justek?" Riku remarked, his voice now carrying the weight of a hundred souls.

"I see not a monster, but a god in the flesh." Justek said with a smile.

Riku slowly raised his hand and with one effortless gesture sent a pulse of overwhelming force upon Justek. The titanic dragon's frame was stretched apart metaphysically as many of his scales were burned down to nothingness.

Justek stood still as another pulse came flooding over him, burning away parts of his skin and setting the membranes of his wings ablaze. He grinned wider as a third pulse washed over his body, dropping him onto one knee.

"This is the power that will make right what's been done wrong, starting with you, Justek!" Riku proclaimed as a fourth pulse burned through Justek's flesh. The dragon's head hunched over, pants of sweat dripping onto the floor.

"Spoken...like a true god," He raised his head up high and threw out a short chuckle of amusement, "Blind, and fallible."

Riku's eyes flared open as he prepared the strongest pulse he could muster to erase Justek's flesh down to the bone.

In the blink of an eye, the battlefield reverted back to normal, and Riku's body returned to its most basic form. He plummeted to the ground, his legs bones feeling as brittle as sand as he landed. His eyes were stiffened open, and he could barely gasp for air. He didn't budge. He just stood there, staring straight at his enemy as they rose back onto their feet looking taller than ever.

"So close, and yet so far," Justek quietly bemoaned, shaking his head out of a sense of pity towards his foe. It was not to last, for his tone quickly grew harsh, "You had the power to end me. But that's all you had...'power'."

He started to crawl closer, each lumbering footstep threatening to topple Riku over.

"Sarajin did not become the man he was in a day. Or a month. Or even a year. He spent most of his life training to master the elements at his disposal. He learned from each society, took part in their culture, became one with his environments..."

"You partook in a little exercising on an asteroid belt and played recklessly with the merger of the elements...But even I'll admit that your ideas were clever. Even Sarajin never considered merging the power of elements together."

"But you never applied yourself enough to your ideas. Gaining power made you confident, and arrogant. You became sure that nothing would hurt you, or the people you cared for again."

"Power without control is like an inferno without borders...It continues to spread away from its origin, consuming all in its path, while its source burns away to an empty husk..."

Justek's eyes narrowed to slits as he let out a huff of disgust towards the pale-faced Riku, "And without power, you've lost your fighting spirit. A pity."

Justek raised his left sword high above his head and a feral gleam shone from his eyes, "You've bared the weight of guilt on your soul for the crime of naivete. Now, this costly mistake shall come at a more...personal loss."

The dragon's blade came down like a guillotine. Riku felt nothing but the rough stone down his arm for a mere second before the rest of his body was flung back through the air.

He crashed down next to Mew and Kairi, his body lying stiff on the ground with his eyes as blank white as snow. Mew pressed his hands on the ground, spraining his muscles in a hasty attempt to check up on his brother.

"R-Riku talk to...!" His eyes went wide as he looked over his brother's body and saw that his right arm was gone, cut cleanly up to the shoulder, with the wound having been cauterized by the flames on the blade.

"Oh...oh my god..." Mew was out of breath. His vision started getting woozy. This was too much. This was simply too much...

"K-Kairi...!" He tried to get her to move and help him out, but she was in a near catatonic state.

"Kairi!" He yelled louder, snapping her out of it briefly.

"I...I...oh no...Riku why..." She stuttered as he stumbled on over to Riku, causing Mew's head to fall to the ground in the process.

She placed her hands towards Riku's burnt shoulder socket and covered it with aura in hopes of keeping the bleeding to a minimum. He heart was beating dangerously fast, her skin lacked feeling, and her mind couldn't keep its thoughts straight.

The ground trembled, a shadow beckoning her attention towards the black dragon as he towered over them, his beastly gaze bathed in darkness.

"You're the only one left, Kairi Aurora..." Justek remarked in a dull, sinister growl, twisting his fangs up in a smirk as he forced his nightmarish frame upon her mind, "Shall we dance?"

Kairi had one hand cupped under Riku's broken arm and the other at the back of Mew's head. She was on her knees with her legs sprawled out, and a trickle of tears went down each cheek as she stared at the dragon feeling zero emotions.

Her survival instinct kicked in for just a moment, forcing her to scream "G-GET AWAY!" as she tried desperately to activate the Neo Drive. The mythical stone stayed unresponsive to her touch, and in time her hand flattened upon it.

She breathed in deep, her exhale ragged. Her heartbeat grew louder, and the tears got thicker.

Justek aired out a heavy sigh and slowly shook his head as he remarked, "I expected much more out of you...Daughter of Auris Aurora."

"Then you were wasting your time, Justek." The last voice Kairi wanted to hear came from behind. She barely cocked her head back, watching as Gravitus stepped onto the scene fully intact.

The cold-hearted man glared down at her, his smug posture emphasizing the disappointment he expressed in his words, "There was never _anything_ worthy about this girl."

_Next Time: To Defy to the Death_


	29. Chapter 28

**Chapter 28: Justek VI: Brave Cry**

It was a pre-existing nightmare stacked atop the current one. A torment that would never seem to cease. Kairi almost couldn't trust herself when it came to the presence of Gravitus behind her.

"W-Why...Why won't you die?!" She exclaimed, to which there was no given response. She'd have gone mad right there, had Justek not spoken up to the "ghost".

"Gravitus...I was wondering when you'd arrive." He remarked.

"Of course," The iron-clad man gestured his hand out with a classy smirk, "It'd be a shame if I did not witness the end of the 'higher-ups'."

He then rubbed his chin and barely paid heed to the ground before him, "But I see you've been busy. Two Overlords clawing towards death, and our 'favorite' destroyer nowhere to be found..."

"And I was to deal with your daughter. But it seems her heart has become as stiff as her legs." Justek guffawed quietly at the end.

"I see..." Gravitus bore his gaze down upon Kairi, who retaliated by biting her teeth and snarling back.

"D-Don't you dare look at me like that you bas-!"

"I don't want to hear a word out of you, child..." Gravitus firmly remarked, his mouth twisting up into something resembling a scowl, "This is the 'chosen one' who bested me twice? A cowardly, inept little girl? The mere thought of it all _shames_ me."

He then turned his eye towards Justek and waved his hand out, speaking in a familiar tone, "Justek...This is a personal matter I must settle. Do not waste your energy on this."

Justek lowered his swords a little to the ground and remarked, "Do as you must, Gravitus."

Gravitus turned his gaze back onto Kairi, who had clocked out for a moment there. Though ultimately she was in a better shape then the two she was caring for, who were completely out of it.

"There was so much potential for the Neo Drive to do good for the world. And all of it has been wasted," He began to raise his hand, which was glowing with aura, "If I can't have it, and you can't maintain the strength of heart to use it...Then perhaps it'd be better off destroyed, and you along with it."

"You did me wrong daughter...And now I shall make things _right_."

Kairi instinctively squeezed her eyes shut and trembled in place, feeling as if Gravitus' aura was beginning to crush her down. Then there was a sudden growl of discomfort, followed by the clattering of tearing metal.

And curiously, Justek spoke up in a humored tone of voice, "I would say 'so close' but...You were never within my reach, _Damascus_."

Kairi HAD to open her eyes and see what was going on. And much to her surprise, Gravitus' hand had been torn off by a small black hole, which vanished on the spot. The man grit his teeth and began to sweat, yet somehow he exemplified confidence.

"It was worth the try, I suppose..." He remarked as if he had cut his finger. The frayed circuitry stuck out of his limb and could not be repaired by his powers.

"_W-What now?!" _Kairi wondered, glancing back at Justek. His head had bowed slightly, then rose to full height with his heart pounding visibly against his chest.

"Yes. It was a clever idea to try and crush my heart. Unfortunately for you, I did not even need my clairvoyance to predict you'd attempt such a folly." Justek coldly remarked.

Gravitus tried to KILL Justek? Just what the hell was going on? She turned to the iron man and saw him swing his head back and laugh, all while gripping the stub of his arm tightly.

"Hahaha! And after I spent all these years keeping my thoughts to myself to counteract your clairvoyance!" Gravitus bit his teeth down and thrust his other hand out whilst exclaiming, "But a monster like you cannot live in my peaceful world. You have served your purpose. Perish!"

His other hand was ripped off by a black hole before his aura bore its glimmer. Gravitus pulled back, letting out a tense grunt.

"Oh, but it is YOU who has long since left the board, Damascus." Justek coldly remarked as with a glint from his eye, a slightly larger black hole took out Gravitus' legs and left him flat on the ground, crawling along by his stubs.

Yet Gravitus bore his fangs with confidence and continued to defy Justek with words, "I knew I was your pawn from the very beginning. I had planned to use the Neo Drive to overpower you once you were freed, b-but...It seems fate conspired against me. Or perhaps...you had a hand in my failure after all."

"Singing is all a caged bird can do," Justek laughed at himself for that one, "Hubris was your downfall Damascus. And even had you gotten the power you craved, it would be pitiful when faced with the wrath I bear for the suffering inflicted upon the one **he** loved."

Gravitus' laugh grew even louder, as he spat at Justek's rage like it was smoldering embers, "Of course...I should've known you never truly betrayed the Elemental Overlord. Spare me your rhetoric Justek...Save the world? This is all what YOU want. Your selfish motivations will always pale in comparison to my altruism..."

"And yet, it is not I groveling on the ground like a limbless toad..." Justek nudged his hand out and a black hole tore open behind Gravitus and began to drag him in.

Gravitus dug his stubs into the floor and fought hard with his gravity powers. But there is no greater pull in the universe than that of a black hole.

He fought against an inevitable demise with a fighting scowl and a hint of laughter. He suddenly faced the dragon and bellowed out in glory, "You will be soon enough! Though its owner is misplaced, the Neo Drive shall suffice in killing you!"

Gravitus slammed his front stubs into the ground and bore a wide-eyed, stern glare towards Kairi, who felt her heart skip a beat as the man raised his voice.

"Hear me, daughter! Though our bond of blood is brittle you are still MY child. And no amount of love and care from your mother can extinguish the stubbornness you inherited from ME. So show him what it means to stand tall, and be PROUD of who you are! Burn him...with the fire of your SOUL!"

And then Gravitus was dragged into the black hole, laughing the whole way out, even as every bit of his body was twisted and turned like a knot. And with one passing moment, he was gone. Truly, never to return.

Kairi felt light in the chest as she hung her head and slowly pivoted it back towards Justek. The man let out slow, deep laughter and remarked to her, "So what will it be? Shall I see a fire? Or shall your spark fizzle out underneath the shadows?"

Kairi drowned him out, retreating into her own mind.

"_You don't have to come along..." _Mew and Riku had given her plenty of opportunities to stay at home where it was safe. So why DID she go? She thought and she thought and couldn't think of an answer.

Finding Gabriel was her biggest connection to all this after Solaris had bailed from Sancturia. All this stuff about the 'higher-ups' and plans among plans was too much for her to figure out. She was just a sixteen-year old girl, worthiness of the Neo Drive be damned! She wasn't prepared for a crisis when she got out of bed this morning. All she wanted was to...go on a date with Mew, like two _normal _people would.

But just by looking at him, she knew that it was a wish that no amount of magic could grant. She could cry and complain about it, hide from it in fear...But if she truly felt the way she felt about Mew, then this was the kind of life she had ultimately signed up for. Like it, or not.

Mew was broken and tired. Alex Whiter had been reduced to ashes. Riku was out an arm and barely held on for his life. Even Gravitus, loathe though she was to admit it, had tried and failed to do something about Justek.

"_So what are YOU going to do Kairi?" _Her inner voice berated her in a crass beatdown, _"Sit here and die or stand and fight?! You're the only one left who can do anything!"_

Kairi's fists went taut, her arms shaking as she bit her lower lip and let out a gasping breath. She was feeling angry at herself, quickly burning away through the shadows of fear clinging to her mind.

"That son of a bitch...How dare he choose now of all times to be a fucking father...!" She would never forgive Gravitus for everything he had done...But he was right about one thing.

"I AM stubborn. I AM proud of who I am!" She pulled her weightless knees off the ground and quickly rose to stand between Mew and Riku, her eyes boring into Justek's titanic body as if he was standing at her level.

"And I WILL stand tall, and shout it out for all to hear!" She quickly slammed down on the Neo Drive, gripping the bracelet as the phenomenal power of her ancestors exploded across her body, creating a pair of sharp and concise rainbow-colored butterfly wings on her back.

"I am the daughter of Auris Aurora, and wielder of the Neo Drive!" Kairi pulled her arms aside, coiled her fists tightly, and slammed her elbows into her hips, "And if I am to die here...!"

She reared her head back and pushed her fists away from her body, "THEN I WILL GO DOWN FIGHTING!"

Her power exploded as a wave of aura so mighty that Justek was shoved a few feet back. With a grunt the dragon cocked a smile and stifled a laugh from his jaw.

Kairi charged him literally head-on in the chest, gritting her teeth as she heard part of her skull crack. The dragon was shoved further back and turned his blades upon her.

Kairi glided swiftly between them and drew a blade in both hands. With one twirl she cut a bunch of scars along the beast's chest.

A rift opened and blasted her with the overflowing energies within. She cocked her arms before her face and grunted as the energy tried to force its way over her body. She fended it off with a bubble of aura that was quickly coming under pressure.

"RAAAAAHHH!" She screamed as she pulled back in a swift burst of speed and sliced her blades straight down the beam.

Justek pulled hard to the left and blocked the cuts with the blunt edge of one blade while dragging the other along the ground. Brimstone and black flames towered over Kairi, crashing down as she turned her aura wintery with a flash of light from her eyes.

The flames froze solid, shattered through by a blast of energy from a rift behind it. Kairi zipped to the right and slipped between a series of beams on her approach to Justek.

She widened her eyes and summoned a holy aura around herself before bolting straight towards. The beams transformed into light from the newer rifts and breached her aura, shoving her off-course.

She quickly corrected it and pulled out a larger blade along her right arm. Justek opened a ten-foot tall rift in her path but she pulled away and ripped through it with her blade, the tip nicking the hip of the beast.

Justek leaped and drove his right blade down her way. She evaded to the left and threw a large spiraling mass of energy into Justek's leg. Whilst his scales were being culled the dragon continued to dance, turning his massive bulk around and forcing his tail close to Kairi's face.

The girl ducked under it, grazed by the bottom most spike, then flipped back into the air to get above the man's blade. An idea sprung and she plunged down onto the blade with all her might, slamming it towards the ground. She then quickly froze it over to pin it down.

Justek chuckled and unfastened the grip on his blade while hopping back. He scorched the space before him in a cone of flame that grazed Kairi as she flew. She paid no heed to her sleeve burning off as the speed she flew would soon put it out.

Justek hammered beams down in her path and the shockwaves from them shoved her towards other ones. She had to push her body as hard as physically possible to get back on course. But what waited for her beyond was the blunt edge of Justek's blade rammed into her body.

He dragged her up into the air and then tried to fry her with another fire blast. Kairi crossed her arms and summoned a barrier that deflected the blast back at the dragon, who caught it in a rift and flung it into her back the second she let her guard down.

Kairi gasped as her back was left inflamed with pain. She grit his teeth and fluttered her wings to put the fire out, combining that with a cold aura to great effect. She then drove straight down towards the dragon's skull with both her fists flung back.

The dragon opened a rift in her way and waggled his right claw in the air beside it. She rolled to the left past a beam and then thrust one finger out, striking the dragon's eye with a thin, pointed laser.

His head pulled back slightly, the eyelid creasing shut as yellow blood oozed down his neck. He then raised his head back with a smirk and embers spewing between his fangs.

Kairi immediately dove down and drew two blades as she flung herself towards his underside. She slashed quickly above and breached his skin, but not deep enough to draw blood. She widened her eyes and considered a second pass, only for a rift to dissuade that thoughts.

She hopped and rolled to the left to evade a beam, only to be rammed head-on by another. It struck quick and hard, tumbling her a good twenty feet away from her foe.

She steadied herself and didn't wait for the dizziness to subside before throwing herself at Justek. The dragon created a wall of rifts and blasted out lasers at differing intervals and directions, moving them about in pursuit of the agile fly in his way.

Kairi created a big, thick blade down her right arm and buried it within one of the lasers, sucking up the energy to slice it back at Justek.

Justek parried the energy with his blade and continued to swing, throwing up a gale to try and turn Kairi around. She held on tight against the winds pressing on her skin and managed to get within feet of her foe's body.

Right as she started pulling her fist back Justek barred the way forward with his flames pointed down. She backed away and he raised his head to pursue. She rolled to the right and called forth her blade to go for another stab.

A rift started to form, but with some quick thinking and a bit of panic Kairi prematurely ejected the blade off and it passed the rift to stab into Justek's chest.

She then got a flash of inspiration and swung her hands down, creating "bird wings" down her arms made of similar shaped blades.

Justek immediately resorted to covering the space before him in rifts and charging forward, carrying Kairi along in the wind he kicked up.

She fought alongside the wind as she made her way across the front of his body. The blades made for good protection when Justek fired beams from the rifts. She lined up her shot and flung the blades between the rifts, successfully stabbing each one into Justek's body.

But even still the dragon refused to bleed. He suddenly stopped, shoving Kairi away, and then crushed the blades with a roar.

He then dragged his blades across the sky, firing an "X" of black flames towards her. She threw her hand up and summoned a barrier to deflect it back, but Justek dealt with it by firing a flame blast into the center. He then propelled a few more of those.

Kairi swerved left-to-right as needed to graze the fire and then gathered aura above her head into a giant sphere. She hurtled it at Justek, knowing full well he'd put it into a rift.

So she barreled forward, her body becoming a bolt of light that bent around the rift and rammed straight into Justek's chest. The dragon staggered back a couple feet and was bashed across the face by that same bolt.

She looped around and hit him on the other side of his face, then spiraled around his body in multiple loops to strike away wherever she could hit.

Justek swerved his head when possible and opened his mouth to blast the whole entire space of his right side in flames, intercepting Kairi mid-flight and forcing her to the ground.

She quickly put up a barrier to keep her body cool, but it only lasted a second upon the tip of Justek's blade. She rolled to the right before her body became paste, her heart racing as she mustered up a second barrier, this time with a holy presence to it.

Justek was forced to stop his flames and summon a light beam to try and break through. Kairi backed away under cover and then flicked her arms out, spearing Justek with a few more blades. The dragon grimaced, upon which blood spurted from his wound.

Kairi paid heed to the beast's pain as she rallied more blades to her side and flung them out. Justek narrowly gazed ahead and tore open a rift directly in front of him, letting out a mighty roar that quaked the air.

A pair of headlights poked through the rift, followed by an empty bullet train shooting out of the rift. The blades impaled on the front and Kairi lost her focus for a moment from how absurd this was, which nearly got her run over by the train.

She flew to the right and the train exited through another rift. She then turned to Justek and shook her head, keeping her focus strong as she got in closer. She summoned energy balls from her wings and they fired lasers swiftly through the air, clipping the scales off Justek's limbs and burning down to the flesh.

Justek opened a few rifts to fire lasers in retaliation, then carved his blades along the ground to send waves of flame after Kairi.

Kairi tucked her arms against her chest and narrowly sped between the flames, using her blades to carve her way to safety at the last stretch.

Justek opened even MORE rifts above him and more bullet trains came speeding out of them much faster than the first one. Kairi backed off, a couple of the trains smashing upon the ground and breaking apart with explosive force.

One train rammed directly into her, bouncing her against the ground like a pinball when she summoned a barrier. She broke out of it and threw her arms back, cupping energy between the palms and thrusting it straight ahead into Justek's chest.

He tanked the attack, running at her full force with his swords held all the way out. Kairi flew out of the way but Justek started spinning, dragging her into his hurricane whether she liked it or not.

She found herself pressed against one of his blades and fending off the burn of his flames with aura. He let her go after a few seconds and she went tumbling along the ground, her weakened skin scarred by the battered surfaces.

Her nerves cried and a bit of tears formed in her eyes as she stood up and growled. She swung her right hand out and summoned a gigantic blade in it, raising it high above full of energy. She slashed a wave of aura down towards Justek as his back was turned, so of course he called up a rift to swallow it.

She then curled her fists and lined the sky above with an arch of orbs, firing big lasers straight at Justek, who countered with lasers from his own rifts.

The clashing beams formed a bright, growing sphere in the center that pushed both combatants back. Justek slid into one of his bigger rifts and emerged behind Kairi with his swords drawn overhead.

She turned and hopped away, summoning a holy barrier just to be safe. The resulting crash of the blades still thrust her back a good distance. She then pulled her arms out and spread her aura onto Justek's blades, weighing them down with the intense force of gravity at her side.

Justek grinned and with one mighty heft pulled his heavier blades straight up anyways, tugging on the tether of aura Kairi had with them and tossing her higher. She used her wings to steady out and then drove straight down towards Justek's chest.

She zipped between his blades before they closed the gap and then drew her sword halfway down his chest. She felt the visceral resistance of his flesh tear open and a bit of blood splattered onto her back. It burned like acid, tensing up the grit of her scowl.

She backed away swiftly and Justek staggered forward slightly, only to lunge his head out with a roar and open dozens of rifts filled with bullet trains and worn down skyscrapers alike.

The battlefield quickly turned into a growing scrapyard as debris scattered everywhere thanks to the explosions from the trains mixing with the crashing buildings. Kairi zipped around as best she could but had to resort to a barrier for most of it.

"_Oh no! Mew! Riku!" _She swung her head back and saw that a ton of the debris threatened them. She hastened to their side as a bolt of light and then crossed her arms, throwing her wings over her body to created a multi-layered barrier around them.

The debris went bouncing off while the burning train cars rode along the ground and then flew over her upon colliding with the barrier. When she felt it was safe she parted her wings and took to the sky.

Mew twitched with life and creaked his head back with a smile and a whisper of, "Yeah...You go get 'em Kairi..."

"Mrrrmmm..." He heard activity coming from the right and turned his head to recognize that it was Riku groaning. He didn't try and move. He just laid there, staring blankly towards the ceiling.

"Hey, you're awake..." Mew was relieved to see, "How're you doing?"

Riku silently continued to look up until his face contorted and he bitterly whispered, "Justek was right about me..."

Mew turned his head and muttered, "What?"

Kairi was blown back from one of Justek's blades as she tried to cut him close. She braced herself in the air and he threw up a rift with an unexpected surprise lying behind. A miniature nuke being hurtled at incredible speeds.

As dangerous as it was to try, Kairi held her hands out and caught the nuke in her grasp, spinning around as it tried to drag her away. She grit her teeth and flung it straight back at Justek, then quickly trapped him inside of a barrier as it went off.

The flames rose as a spiraling pillar, roasting Justek alive. The flames started turning black, splitting the barrier at its edges in tune with the beast's roar. An explosion from his body finished the barrier off, lashing the nuclear flames across the ground and sky.

Justek then charged ahead while his flesh was still bright hot and bashed his skull into Kairi's. She trembled and felt something split in her body as she was smashed against the ground, bouncing along it twice before tumbling onto her feet and digging her blade down to stop.

She raised her head up and blood was drizzling across her face. She bit her teeth down and chose to ignore it, focusing entirely on the face of her enemy.

"_This one's for you Shina...!" _She exclaimed as a pair of crossed pistols flashed in her eyes.

Back with the brothers, Riku's eyes started trembling as he forced himself to grit his teeth and pounded the ground with his remaining fist.

"I trained hard to unlock Chaos Form and what did I do with it? Nothing! Because I thought I had gained the power I needed to never lose anyone again. And Genesis Form? I didn't earn that. I went on a hunch out of desperation and it just happened to work!"

"I sought 'power' to pursue 'justice' against evil...Auris was right! Justek was right! I'm no better than Alex Whiter was!"

"Riku, cut it out. You're not thinking straight cause of losing your arm and..." Mew was trying to defuse an active time bomb that was set to burst given the slightest provocation.

"And how are they wrong?!" Riku exclaimed as he turned his head to scream at his brother, "Tell me brother! How has anything I done ever saved anyone?!"

Mew paused and stared into Riku's despair filled eyes, which watered up with tears that spread down his cheek as he laid his head back and clutched his fist.

"I-I got Link killed. And then my presence on other worlds only seemed to make things worse, not better. Nothing I did ever made a difference no matter how strong I got."

"I couldn't stop Alex. I couldn't catch Solaris. I couldn't beat JUSTEK..." His eyes scrunched up and made more tears flood out. He pounded the ground harder with his fist, but only so much as his weakened state would allow.

"Look at us! I tried to protect the only family I've got and FAILED. Because that's my life in a nutshell...Failure after failure after failure!"

"Hey, Riku..." Mew's quiet remark turned his brother's head, where he found Mew struggling to prop himself up on one elbow and inch closer to him.

He fell partway through but curled his fist to gently brush against the side of Riku's head. When Mew fell on his face he muttered "Shit" and quickly raised his head to replace physical aggression with one HELL of a glare.

"You think I'd give a shit that you screwed up? What kinda brother would I be if I did that?!"

"W-What?" Riku stammered in surprise.

Meanwhile, Justek dashed about the battlefield, propping his swords up in defense as thousands of bullets rained down upon him.

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" Kairi screamed as she wielded two uzis in her hands, firing them nearly faster than they could be reloaded.

She descended upon the dragon and tossed the weapons aside, replacing them with two shotguns as she got in close contact with the blades. She pressed the barrels down and pulled the triggers, her arms already contorting as the physical repulsion blasted her away and shoved Justek fifty feet back.

The shockwave from the guns penetrated through his blades and battered him with aura shrapnel. She lashed his blades out to keep Kairi further away and then summoned rifts to pursue her with beams.

She kept her arms to the chest and twirled along the edge of the laser on her way back to her enemy. She drew a bazooka in her hands and fired it off once at the end of the beam. The explosion covered Justek's entire body but the burns would not get a chance to settle upon him summoning a black hole to suck all the hot smoke in.

He then sent a fire blast out that hit the right half of Kairi's body. Her other sleeve and part of her pants burned off, but she kept charging straight ahead with an even mightier fire in her eyes.

Justek barred the way with rifts and lasers alike but Kairi stayed her course. She used a deflecting barrier to puncture her way through the beam and then drew more uzis when she got to the end. She squeezed the guns around the edge of the rift and fired into Justek's chest, making him roar when the bullets penetrated his wounds.

Justek gathered heat in his body and repelled Kairi with a fiery blast. She just barely pulled up a barrier to hold it off. She rose above Justek, stretching her hands out and calling forth a ring of rifles around her body.

She fired the first shot before the dragon could even begin to move his blood. The bullet lodged into his flesh and twisted in deep, penetrating out of his back with a gallon of blood spilling out.

Justek staggered back and raised both his swords as a wall, slowing down the thrust of the hail of bullets so it'd only dig into his flesh, not penetrate through.

Kairi descended upon him to strengthen the bullets, but when she dared to get too close Justek spun around and raised his tail at her. She ducked to the right, but half her arsenal was broken. She grabbed two of the remaining rifles in hand and took aim at Justek's face while the other two worked down his body.

He opened his mouth to melt the bullets with a cone of flame, though one breached through and scraped the side of his neck closest to the jaw. This stopped his flames temporarily, allowing Kairi to pelt away at his body.

But he set up rifts to put an end to that unless she dared to get in closer.

Not going to happen. She backed away and funneled the energy from the remaining rifles into creating two massive laser cannon over her shoulders. She propped them up with ease and filled them with her aura. And when the bright, shining cascades of light burst through the air, even Justek's rifts were torn asunder by their power.

Justek hopped back and scraped his swords forward along the ground, lashing flames up towards her. She backed away and shrunk down the cannons to become gun probes, then dove at the dragon. The probes gathered up the lingering aura in the air and blasted Justek with pounding force.

He lost a large chunk of his right wing's membrane while a second blast twisted his body to the left. She held the probes back and dragged her hands back, summoning a massive blade between them that she plunged into the depths of Justek's chest.

She held on for dear life as the probes' blasts continued pounding away at Justek's body, dragging her body in a straight line down his flesh and covering herself from the blood that gushed out. But try as she might, she couldn't cut the beast's heart.

She landed on the ground and hopped away, panting wildly from a mix of heavy sweat and exhaustion. Justek started to lean forward, where Kairi pulled her hands out and used gravity to try and force him down.

The dragon aired a mighty roar and flames burst forth from his body in an explosion too big for Kairi to evade. Even when she put up a barrier, the blast tore right through and knocked her onto her back.

She tumbled once then arrived back on her feet, with one knee heading towards the ground. She locked eyes with Justek and hopped and rolled to the right to evade a fire blast, and then another, but the third time proved to be the dragon's charm.

When that hit connected Justek unloaded a cone of flames over Kairi's body, forcing her to burn aura to shield herself. She grit her teeth and concentrated her energy into the barrier, and then thrust it out with a roar. It crashed into Justek's head and threw it back as far as it'd go without snapping.

Kairi cupped an arm under her chest and breathed heavily as Justek lowered his head with a smirk and looked no worse for the wear than he had starting this battle off. He still towered over her, even with a body full of blood drenched scars.

"_I keep cutting into him but he just __**won't **__go down! Ugh! What the hell's he made of?!" _

Back with the brothers, Riku got over his shock long enough to respond to what Mew had said, "S-Stop it...Just...Stop it already! We're not brothers! We're barely a family! You made me, and we've barely known each other a day!"

"And why should that matter huh? If your heart says the bond is real, then its real!" Mew responded so quickly it as though HE had clairvoyance.

"And further more...!" Mew paused to look down, where he pulled his hand out from under his body to point at Riku with, "It doesn't matter that you failed! You kept going right?! You don't know how proud that makes me as your brother!"

"I...I'm so confused..." Riku groaned.

"Riku..." Mew quieted down and acted a little more serious in this heart-to-heart of theirs, "Do you know why I created you?"

"Because...you were lonely?" Riku jumped to.

"No nothing like that..." Mew brushed his hand out, "Its because I gave up..."

Riku went silent, while Mew turned somber, "I-I tried to strike it out on my own...once. I didn't really have that much attachment to the Earth so I figured...why the hell not right?"

"...I ran into Joe Dark before I even got to a single new world. And that encounter led to my first meeting with 'D.' I was so traumatized by what he did with my body that I flew back to Earth as soon as I could and never gave a second thought to venturing out again."

"But I just couldn't let go of this feeling that I was meant to do something much more with my life...And that led to me creating you, so you could go out and do what I was too cowardly to accomplish."

"...Brother?" Riku muttered.

"And while you went out into the stars I stayed home, doing the bare minimum I could with my life so that demon wouldn't take over. Eventually I just sort of...came to love Earth. Only because I convinced myself that there was no other place out there for me."

"I...I had no idea..." Riku remarked.

"Well duh!" Mew snapped right back into his jolly old self and brushed the back of his hand against his brother's shoulder, "Like you said we've only known each other a day!"

"But...we got plenty to time to change that, don't we?" Mew closed his eyes and a slim grin formed, while Riku stared at him with bedazzled eyes.

"I mean come on, you got to meet Link?! I-I mean...it sucks that he died but like...There's so many adventures you must've had out there! And those new forms of yours are soooo cool, you gotta tell me more about them!"

"Brother..." Riku struggled to get out in the face of Mew's overwhelming excitement.

"Yeah?" Mew said.

"IF...we can even survive this." Riku tried turning his head back and along with Mew, they find that Kairi's starting to lose wind against Justek's overwhelming might.

"You gotta be shittin' me...Even the Neo Drive's not enough?" Mew laid his hand on the ground and started pushing forward, only to fall flat on his face with a hardy grunt.

"Brother stop, you don't have the strength to fight..."

Mew planted his hand down again and pushed an inch further off the ground, straining his neck with a terrible sounding grunt.

"S-So what?!" He said before falling flat on his face again, drawing blood out of his nose.

"We're not going to die here...! I'll even punch Death on the face if that'll get us more time on the clock!"

"..." Riku closed his eyes and laid his head back upon the ground. He then took in a deep breath and suggested out of the blue, "Use me."

"Huh?" Mew tilted his head with a the most slanted, bizarre look in his eyes ever.

"I may be out of elemental energy, but my body is made up of enough of it since you created me...If you absorb me, then that should be enough to-" Before he could even finish Mew had slapped his hand down onto his brother's chest with all his might.

"Alright I'll do it!" Mew exclaimed, fearless in his lack of hesitation.

"W-Wait a second brother...If you absorb me into your body that's it...I...I'm not going to be alive anymore." And from his tone, Riku seemed to accept his fate.

"Oh quit being so melodramatic. We're making a promise right here right now to get through this mess together, no matter what!" Mew raised his head and had a fierce smile on his face as he declared, "There! Now you'll still be alive when we've defeated Justek!"

"I..." Riku let out a long, long sigh and shook his head, "I don't know if I'll be able to keep dealing with you like this on a constant basis brother..."

"Hehehe! That's the most brotherly thing you've said to me all day Riku!"

A bright light shone from Riku's chest, and filled his and Mew's body to make an even brighter light...

Kairi crashed upon the ground and forced herself back up by the elbows. Her vision was incredibly blurry, and her knees were shaking.

Justek towered over bloody body and remarked in a return to his more cordial tone of voice, "You gave me a good fight, Kairi Aurora. With just a little more time to master the Neo Drive, you could have even defeated me. You have done your mother proud."

Kairi spat blood at the ground and muttered, "I-Is that meant to be a compliment?!"

"Only one of the highest praise..." Justek began to raise his sword and Kairi began to suspect she'd suffer a similar fate to Riku, if not tasting the cold embrace of death.

She held her eyes wide-open and stared down the incoming blade as it descended rapidly upon her. A gentle breeze tossed her hair forward, while the blade's impact upon a solid obstacle forced it back down. She stared straight ahead and couldn't believe what she was seeing.

A lone, silver-haired man stood underneath the blade and held it back with just two fingers. With a careful gesture the blade was knocked back, and Justek stumbled away as well.

The hairstyle was familar, even if the clothes were not. The man wore a half-black, half-white t-shirt with a cloth of the opposite color running down each of his shoulders. He had dark brown jeans and a gold chain belt.

"Sorry I'm late..." The voice were two combined into one, though they were so similar that it was hard to tell that at first.

"M-Mew...R-Riku?! H...HUH?!" Kairi spent some of her last bit of energy completely confused, and she started to faint falling forward.

Mew? zipped a little back and caught Kairi under his arm, then helped lay her gently on the ground.

"Ah come on, you fainted before I even got to say the cool line..." He helped brushed the hair out of her face and then patted her on the cheek a couple times.

"You did great Kairi." He whispered.

"...Hahaha!" Justek started laughing very loudly to the point of being on the verge of tears.

Mew? looked at him from the side of his face and then stared at him straight on once he'd stood back up.

"You never cease to fascinate me, young Mew. Or...do I refer to you as young Riku?"

Mew? crossed his arms and hummed it over for a bit in his head, "Uhhhh...I'll get back to you on that. I mean...Miku and Rew are pretty crummy fusion names..."

"So I now fight a man with no name?" Justek said with a hearty chuckle, "This was one of the many possible outcomes, but I never thought **I** would be the one to experience it. But...I hope you're not expecting a merger of your selves to be enough to turn the tide..."

Mew? got a flash of inspiration from Justek's words and snapped his fingers to the side, "Oh that's perfect!"

He then held his right hand out and summoned a large blade that was a combination of Riku's helix blade with Mew's broadsword intertwined within.

"Give me just one moment to set up..." He said while casually swinging his sword aside and being covered by both light and darkness as though it was a swift breeze.

The cloth on his shoulders turned into broad, crystallized plates while his shirt grew metallic and kept the half-colored sides. Light and dark were cast off his hips, creating small plates that draped a cloth down his soon to be grieve covered legs. His hair lengthened down his shoulders, and his eyes turned light gray. Finally his wings emerged from the back as pure energy constructs, feathery in their form.

"You can call us the Phoenix of Hope!" As the new warrior spread his wings a width of ten feet he pointed his now condensed sword at Justek and proclaimed, "And we carry with us a hope so bright that not even your black holes can snuff it out!"

Justek paused, allowing his humor at the situation to die out before he gripped his swords tight in each hand. He raised one before his face, whispering in a subdued, beastly tone, "Then let our elements clash for the final time, young Hopebearer..."

He then swung his sword down, their eyes locked as tension thickened in the atmosphere...

_Next Time: First Steps_


	30. Chapter 29

**Chapter 29: Justek VII: An Eternal Ambition**

"_Huff...Huff...!" A young boy ran through the rocky wastelands outside his village home, climbing the nearby peaks with the scruffy dirt digging into his thimble arms and legs. _

"_Oh why did I decide to climb this...?" He groaned, tilting his head back and flinching at the ground only a hundred feet down. _

"_Mmrrr...!" He took a gulp, nudged his little glasses back into place, and continued climbing. His hands were sore and red by the time he reached the top, and found themselves on his knees while he caught his breath._

_His glasses slid off, only for him to hastily catch and put them back on. He then bobbed his head around, eyeing the barren horizon that stretched for miles. _

"_I-It fell down around here somewhere..." He muttered to his lonesome, careful not to agitate the nearest wildlife. _

_The perch was small and not very stable. One misstep would drop him on his head. The pebbles rattled as he shuffled his feet forward, leaving him antsy. It fortunately didn't take much searching for the boy to come across his target._

_Standing precariously on the edge of the perch was a boy that looked roughly his age, albeit a couple inches shorter. They had a dusted up, slightly tattered poncho over their shoulders and paper thin pants with a bunch of neatly cut small diamond holes. Their hair was brown and untidy, and they didn't seem to wear any shoes._

"_A...person?" The boy thought, "And he's my age too..."_

_The boy silently crept up towards the stranger and mewed to them a few feet behind, "H-Hello?"_

_The stranger spun in place and exclaimed in a bright, chipper tone, "Hi yourself!"_

"_ACK!" The boy choked on his own gasp of shock and stumbled back onto weak rock, which broke on his weight and sent him tumbling off the edge._

"_W-WHAAAAAAAAAA!" Their scream lasted much long than their fall, which was halted by a soft, fluffy cloud. As the panic slowed, the boy creaked their eyes open and saw the stranger laying down over the edge with his hands pressed up to his cheeks._

"_H...Huh?" The boy remarked._

"_Sorry about that! Didn't mean to frighten you," The stranger extended their hand and said, "Here, grab my hand and I'll pull you up!"_

_The boy's face turned pale as they planted their hands on the cloud and stuttered, "Y-You came from the sky...T-That means you're from the Sky Tribe..."_

"_Yeah, my name's-"_

"_I-I-I'll jump! I mean it! I'd rather become a splat on the ground then let you elementals kidnap me!" The boy's eyes darted right._

"_Huuuuh?" The stranger widened their eyes, stretched their hand out a little more, then said with a chuckle, "You're weird stranger."_

_It was only through the stranger's sincerity that the boy saw a reason to calm down, and take his hand without another word. The stranger grunted, but could only pull the boy a few inches off the cloud before flopping chest first back onto the ground._

"_Ahahahah...!" The strange shamelessly laughed at themselves before quickly remarking, "Looks like I'm going to need your help to pull you up."_

_The boy stared at the stranger and slowly bobbed their head. On the count of three, he then hopped and the stranger was able to pull them back up with all his might. They then rolled onto their backs, taking a moment to catch their breath in sync._

_When it was done the stranger threw his right hand back and said, "As I was saying before, my name's Sarajin Stratos! What's yours?"_

_The boy's left hand shook as he raised it back and said "J-Justek..." only for his arm to be thrown around by Sarajin's energetic handshake._

"_Great! You'll be my first friend on the surface Justek!" After Sarajin __**eventually**__ chose to let go they stood up and faced each other. _

_Justek nudged his glasses back up and remarked, "I-Is...that how friendship works?"_

"_I DON'T know!" Sarajin proudly proclaimed while crossing his arms against his chest._

_Justek's weary eyes strained to focus on the boys face while he pointed up at the sky and said, "Did you...hit your head when you came down?"_

"_Probably!" Sarajin didn't hesitate to respond and also started flapping his arms up and down, "I'm not very used to this whole 'flying' thing."_

"_...Just go with it and he'll be out of your hair in no time Justek..." He groaned in his thoughts._

"_S-So...what brought you down here, Sara...jin?" _

"_I wanted to go exploring!" He answered right away, "Dad's always telling me 'Its dangerous down there', but..." _

_Sarajin turned around and poked his head out towards the horizon, "I don't see any danger. Just a lotta brown!" _

"_T-That's because this is just one part of the world..." Justek muttered before thinking, "How sheltered is this guy?"_

"_Yeah I know!" Sarajin's immediate response shut up any further misgivings on Justek's end about his intelligence...for now._

"_There's a ton of other tribes for the other elements, and I want to go and visit them all!" Sarajin waved his hand out towards the horizon then clutched it into a fist towards the sun, "I'll learn as much as I can from them, including how to use their elements! And if things get dangerous, then I'll be ready to protect them..."_

_He grit his teeth and brought his fist towards his chest with a fiery resolve brewing beneath, "As the Elemental Overlord!"_

_I thought he was crazy, and yet...There was nothing wasteful about his words. He had genuine heart, and went about his everyday life with the same positive attitude. I had followed him at first out of, admittedly, a devious desire to see him fail._

_But no matter the obstacle, no matter the challenge either physically or intellectually, Sarajin somehow always prevailed. It was not that he was intimidating. Or smart, far from it. He just thought in a very unique way, and that changed the people around him in different ways, myself included. _

_Through our time together we truly became friends. I saw the world through its many cultures. I met the likes of Auris, the would-be Dark King, and even the seven that'd come to be Sarajin's most trusted allies. It was a time of discovery...Before the reckoning of my people, and the imprisonment of my freedom..._

"Hey!" The sharp call-out from Justek's opponent snapped his eyes open with a stutter. There was silence that was broken by the immense trembling coming from outside the sanctity of the ship.

"You dozing off _now _old man?" The Phoenix of Hope remarked with their arms laid over their chest.

Justek curled his gritted fangs into a smile and chuckled to himself, _"What an odd time to remember that..." _

He drew his blades up and remarked to his company, "And if I was, wouldn't it have been wiser to attack now?"

The tremors began to settle down, and the dragon bore his eyes upon his foe, "The event horizon I seek is close at hand. Soon it will be too late for you to defeat me."

"Can't be too cocky," The Phoenix remarked as they whipped their blades out to their side, "Not when you still have clairvoyance."

"_Heh...If only they knew. The bending of time and space has made the flow of history undeterminable. But I foresaw a possibility of success before this began. Even if the path forward in unclear now..." _Justek spread his legs and wings, "I will see this through to the end. Even this last trick of yours shall not be enough."

"This isn't a trick. This is the real deal!" The Phoenix gripped their blade in both hands and pointed it out alongside their face.

Justek's throat rumbled with a growl as he began to open a rift directly in front of him. In the blink of an eye it was cut in half by the air off the Phoenix's blade.

The Phoenix chuckled as they raised their blade off the ground. The dragon chuckled in turn, "A fine display of strength..."

He spread his wings as the sky above was filled with a hundred rifts, "But can you cut them _all _down?"

The Phoenix's chuckle lost steam and he focused more on holding onto his blade towards the rifts as they began pelting the ground with a hail of white hot lasers.

The Phoenix dashed along the ground quicker than Justek could follow, save for the occasional break in the lasers where the Phoenix stopped to twirl them away.

In their nimble efforts his foe had found gaps in the onslaught and slashed repetitiously through the rifts. Justek opened his mouth, stretching the skin beside his jaw, and unleashed a hellish cone of flame across the land.

The Phoenix stumbled back and then divided the flames in twine by standing still with their blade pointed down. They then twirled in place and lashed a wave of light and dark out from their blade along the floor.

Justek swung his blades out to break the energy with the gale, and worsen the spread of his flames. The Phoenix twirled even faster, send wave after wave through the flames, to the point that the energy began to combine and make even BIGGER waves.

Justek was forced to crossed his swords to defend, and was dragged a few feet back on impact. And with their attention off his flames, the Phoenix whipped their blade around a hundred times a second to cut through the remaining rifts.

Justek just decided to open more around the Phoenix in a dome, his foe's eyes darting around as the bombardment of lasers commenced. He pushed the rifts closer to keep his escape routes at a minimum, but that didn't seem to be of any concern to them. They simply stood their ground and danced in place, whipping their sword around in both hands to deflect the lasers.

Justek leaped towards the cage and slashed his blades through his rifts, pounding the Phoenix with a flaming cross. The attack was cut down the middle and the Phoenix flew straight into his chest.

Justek tried to time a rift to catch them but they were simply too fast to tag as they rose up, spiraling around to repeatedly hack away at his chest.

Right before the neck the Phoenix bounced back and dragged their sword around, gathering in the light from the air to thicken the blade.

"Here comes the big one!" They exclaimed as they drove the blade down through Justek's left shoulder and landed behind him.

Blood spilled from the tearing ligaments and muscle, but the arm did not break off. Justek grit his fangs and glanced over his shoulder to launch a fire blast at his foe.

The Phoenix glanced back and moved aside, getting tagged by only half the attack. They then dragged their blade along the ground, firing up sparks on their way back to the dragon's front.

Justek saw them sharply turning to attack coming from a mile away and took to the air. He went a hundred feet high and tossed a multitude of rifts around his foe to keep them from pursuing.

He turned his fire blasts upon the ground, where they exploded outward as a ring on contact. After the Phoenix had cut himself free he started hopping and gliding over the rings, slicing his sword out five times between each landing.

Justek was nicked by the light blades sent out and hastened the release of the fire blasts. This made the Phoenix started backing away. Not one to take chances, Justek opened up more rifts around him and meteors blitzed their way out.

The Phoenix was quick on their feet but still took a couple hits from the meteors before finding the timing to cut them down. In the meanwhile Justek entered a rift to get behind the Phoenix and swing his blades down.

They responded with their sword hung overhead to block them. Justek continued pressing on, forcing their foe's knees towards the ground in seconds.

"Y-You know what...?" They commented right as they let go of their blade, which continued to hover there holding Justeks' back as they slipped out of the way, "I think I need a new perspective here."

They darted behind Justek and wrapped their arms around the tail, away from the spikes. They pulled him up so fast that it made the mighty fell dragon feel as small and light as a chicken. And before he could retaliate, he found himself slammed on his back, a loud crack coming from his spine.

He then called his blade back and hopped onto their waist, stabbing their blade deep in and sprinting the way up towards their neck. Justek's hide proved tough, a blessing if there ever was one, as it gave the dragon ample time to raise his head and scorch his assailant over with a cone of flame.

The Phoenix made a hasty retreat not even halfway through carving him up, using the fold of his wings to fend off most of the flames. In the end they'd only receive minor burn marks on their skin.

Justek had difficulty standing up, _"The one flaw of being a dragon, I suppose..." _But his foe didn't seem to want to take advantage of it. The bleeding from his underside slowed down in seconds. His innards were untouched, clean, but working their hardest to keep him in fighting form.

"_But even if everything I am is reduced to blood...I __**will**__ break the 'higher-ups'." _Justek swung his right blade out at the ground and snarled a bit of steam from his nostrils.

The Phoenix pointed his blade at him and remarked, "You REALLY don't wanna go down, do you?"

"If I fell to a gnat at this juncture then I may as well have never left that cage..." Justek jested in return.

The Phoenix pointed their blade at the ground and glided it in a curve in front of them. They then traced the line over in the blink of an eye and it sent a wave of growing, widening light at Justek.

The dragon opened their mouth and a fire blast matched the light perfectly, dispelling them both. Heat spilled forth from underneath his scales as the Phoenix tried their luck with a back attack.

"Oh I don't think so..." Justek grumbled as an immense blast of heat erupted from their body, consuming his foe in the blaze of their determination.

The Phoenix pushed heavily against the force to try and stab their blade down into the center of the dragon's back. But as the heat faded out Justek made a hard turn and whacked their foe with their tail. The Phoenix moved their blade in the way in time and was knocked to the ground.

Justek spun their way and assailed them with a cone of flame that they blocked with their wings. He then surrounded the empty space with rifts and pinned them down even harder with white hot lasers.

The light domed around them, and Justek peppered it with flame blasts that made it grow bigger faster, adding a tint of blue to the mix. When it had grown to be even bigger than him, it detonated into a fiery explosion that nearly clipped him at its edge.

Justek just stood in marvel of it, even knowing that it would barely faze his foe. When the flames and smoke subsided, the Phoenix stood in the exact same pose with a tiny amount of black marking their arms. They then brushed their hands aside and shook it off, revealing it to be soot.

Justek paused to catch his breath. He was sweating, and it stuck between his scales. He had practically been fighting non-stop for the last hour, each foe harder to take down than the last. And this one would be no different.

"Whew..." The Phoenix also caught their breath, for lack of reason thereof, and let out a sharp whistle as they rubbed the back of their head.

"You're not making this easy." He remarked with a smile.

"Heh..." Justek guffawed, "It'd be simpler if you gave up and let me do what I must but...We both know that was never on the table."

"I just don't understand..." The Phoenix pointed their blade directly at Justek's face, "Is this really the only way?"

"...Yes. Success is practically guaranteed." Justek remarked.

"You hesitated," The Phoenix was quick and sharp to point out, "Which tells me you haven't tried to come up with any other plan."

"...!" Justek grimaced, his fangs curling into a faint, abhorrent smile, "Heh...hehehe. I find it hard to deny what you accuse me of so instead let me ask you this..."

"What is YOUR solution to the 'higher-ups'?" The pressing weight of his words made the Phoenix squirm into silence so he could think. But judging by the quiver of his eyes, it was proving to be a struggle.

"I...I don't know the answer to that."

"Exact-"

"I wasn't finished!" The Phoenix's curt response caught Justek by surprise, "But what I do know is that there's no worth in stopping a threat if it requires sacrificing someone to do it."

They turned so their finger was pointing at the dragon instead, "The cost is too high Justek, don't you understand that?!"

"Cost?" Justek's smile curled into somewhat of a scowl, "Do not speak to me of cost. I have seen the 'higher-ups' take and ruin more lives than any living being could feasibly count. Am I supposed to be expected to stand idly by and try to come up with a victimless solution while they continue to annihilate even more worlds in the blink of an eye?"

"I can't accept your answer! There's another solution to this problem, and if you can't find it then I will!" The Phoenix faced forward and drew their blade by their hip.

Justek twitched as he stared into the fiery eyes of his enemy, where his mind again began to drift.

"_Justek? Hey!" Justek blinked his weary eyes a couple times before looking down at Sarajin. They were in their mid-twenties. Justek still had black in his hair and his skin was smooth. His clothes, a much cleaner version of what they are in the present._

_Sarajin hadn't changed much besides getting taller and putting on larger clothes because of it. He was at present, six inches shorter than his buddy, but Justek couldn't help but feel like they were on even footing._

_They stood at the edge of the Sancturia of the past, which was covered by a barrier that, while not obscuring, kept anyone from entering normally. _

"_You zoned out there for a moment. You alright?" Sarajin asked._

_Justek pinched his forehead and quietly laughed the tiredness off, "Pardon me my friend...It seems my children has left me exhausted."_

"_Yeah, Lunis and Solaris are sprouting like cornstalks! Next time I come by they'll be taller than me!" _

"_Oh that's still quite a ways off." Justek said with a shriveled smile then held his hand out to open a rift to the outside of the barrier._

_Sarajin inched a little towards it but then tilted his head back and remarked, "Hey you should come with me. Its been a while since you've stretched your legs outside of Sancturia. We could go visit Ezekiel and the others like old times!"_

"_I will have to pass. I can't...leave my children here." Justek replied, hiding a sigh._

"_I mean...Auris can watch over for them right?" Sarajin looked into Justek's eyes for a bit but then rubbed the back of his head and remarked, "Aaaah, never mind. You look like you need some rest."_

"_I'm sorry."_

"_Ah don't worry about it! Its always good to see you doing well!" Sarajin remarked, much to Justek's chagrin. Though he did not make a sound._

"_Well, catch you later!" _

"_...Sarajin." Justek stopped him from going an inch into the rift._

"_Yeah?" Sarajin quickly turned around._

_Justek took a deep breath and sighed through his nostrils, "Is it worth the risk to keep coming here for me?"_

"_What do you mean?"_

"_You want to unite all the tribes. If you continue to undermine the Ten Sages' authority by coming here..." _

"_You're being overdramatic!" Sarajin interrupted with a smile and then patted Justek on his shoulder, "I'm on good terms with Auris and her dad. Nothing bad's going to come from me visiting my best friend!"_

_Justek placed his hand on Sarajin's, closed his eyes, and felt a light flutter in his heart, "Yes...best friends. And nothing more..."_

_He then gently moved his hand off and told him, "I want your dream to become a reality Sarajin. Do not ruin it over me."_

"_Justek, my dream won't be complete if you're not there to share it." Sarajin admitted in a rare moment of seriousness on his part._

"_...Hmmm," Justek smiled and broke into a little soliloquy, "It doesn't matter where I seem to go. I shall always be a caged bird." _

_Sarajin hung his shoulders and let out a huge, hanging sigh. He then shook his head and remarked bluntly, "Bird, dragon, man, I don't care what you are Justek. You're my best friend, and I'd do anything for you."_

_He then nudged him on the chest with his fist and said, "So seriously, stop being melodramatic." _

"_But if there is no way to save me?" Justek remarked._

"_I can't accept that answer!" Sarajin exclaimed, "There's always a way to move forward, even if its not obvious at first!"_

_Justek let out another sigh before he subtly shook his head and began to laugh, "You don't read, and yet somehow you have a better way with words than me."_

"_Heeeeey I read!" Sarajin said with a playful smile. And then, after giving a moment of silence to grace their happiness, he turned to the rift and remarked, "See you later Justek."_

"_Yes, I know I will..." And when his friend was through the portal, Justek hung his shoulders and furrowed his brow, "Whether its a good idea or not..."_

Justek blinked twice and quietly spun his right sword around in the air, bracing it beside his hip as the other was poised towards his enemy.

"Only if you can defeat me..."

The Phoenix narrowed their gaze and sprinted forward in the blink of an eye. Justek predicted their path and put their sword in the way to divert them towards the left, where he was most open.

But only to draw them into the path of his tail, which they quickly hopped over. Justek continued to spin, dragging his swords around to force the Phoenix away, but still in reach of his flame breath.

The Phoenix cut down the middle of the flames and took a shot at Justek's face. The dragon turned his head and chomped down on the blade with all his might, scraping the Phoenix's knuckles and forcing them back.

Justek then spat the blade into a rift and launched more flames down at the Phoenix, who was forced to resort to a barrier to fend them off.

Justek summoned a rift on each side and smashed a bullet train into the barrier, dropping and raising his sword in tune with them. Pounding away cracked at the barrier rather quickly. And when the first hole began to form Justek hunched his head down and unloaded as much flames as he could into the barrier.

He pulled his head away and hopped back when a dark rift opened in the ground and the Phoenix came flying out to attempt an uppercut.

"Not likely..." Justek said before headbutting his startled foe. They grabbed onto his skull and pushed him back, trying to get a grip on something besides his hair.

Justek opened a rift over his head and fired a white-hot laser down onto the Phoenix. He could endure the brunt of it until his foe got off, but it didn't seem like that would be easy. So he widened the rift further and increased the payload.

That seemed to get him mad instead. The Phoenix gripped their fist and smashed it into Justek's skull while still holding on, knocking them out of the light.

Justek flung his head back to throw them off before they could re-establish dominance, bombarding them with a flurry of lasers as they tried to recover.

Justek steadily turned to face his foe and launched fire blasts between the laser fire to strike the Phoenix. He then resorted to aerial bombardment to drag them back down to the ground.

The moment the Phoenix landed they swiftly hopped away, narrowly avoiding the rifts Justek littered the ground with.

"Things are getting hairy!" The Phoenix remarked, their look of "panic" turned confident when they whipped their hand out and ripped their sword free from the void that it'd been imprisoned in.

Once they found solid footing they bolted straight at Justek with the sword twisted behind their head. The dragon heated up their body, ready to explode. But from the fire in their foe's eyes they would tackle this attack head-on.

The Phoenix leaped for Justek's head and their sword began to swing. Justek fired off an explosion that covered them completely, launching them back where they had begun covered in smoke.

The Phoenix swiped their hand under their chin and smirked, their confidence soon to be warranted. Justek's body was engraved with a bright white five-pointed star that cut out his explosion halfway, and ripped through his muscles.

Blood spurted out and he stumbled back a few feet, the grip on his blades weakening. He tightened it up, planting them tip first against the ground as his knees began to bow.

"Haaaa...haaa..." Justek's breaths were steamy as he forced himself to rise up and hold his blades close to his sides.

"I'll keep coming at you as many times as it takes Justek!" The Phoenix proclaimed, which could no longer be interpreted as a lie.

The dragon's fangs creaked to smile, and he raised his head up high to persist in his defiance, "Your light of hope is stronger than a thousand dying suns..."

"Though, you said a black hole is not enough to snuff it out?" Justek's eyes gleamed and flared wide-open, his voice rupturing into a more feral dialect as he declared, "Then shall we put that to the ultimate test?!"

The Phoenix couldn't budge an inch before a black hole the size of Justek himself ripped open from behind. Then the boy had no choice but to be dragged inside, twisted and tossed against the rim.

But Justek did not stop there. He tossed the black hole inside of a wormhole, then threw that inside of a rift, and then THAT into a vortex. He stacked every single anomaly he could think of on top of one another without a single bit of strain to his sanity.

"Can you survive THIS?!" Justek leaped at the finished product and slashed through it in a cross. He then spun around and drove his blades through it diagonally down, and then back up in the opposite direction as he charged past the anomaly.

"Purge yourself of your ideals and hope..." Justek started carving into the anomaly horizontally and vertically dozens of times a second.

"Lay waste to the dreams and ambitions you held dear..." He zipped around the anomaly, stabbing into what little remained of it.

"And surrender yourself, to the slumber of a black oblivion...!" Justek skid to a stop before the anomaly and raised his swords up high to cleave through it one final time.

"SAVAGE VORTEX BREAKER!" Justek pulled away right as the deed was done. The multi-dimensional fissue collapsed in upon itself, creating a explosion that tore the fabric of reality asunder across the back half of the arena.

Justek glared into the inferno of pandemonium and solemnly drifted off into his thoughts once more.

"_T-T-TRAITOR!" Auris laid on the ground in a pool of her own blood, the pieces of a broken Drive Stone beside a twisted wrist. She had been brutalized so badly that it took her much longer than normal to recover._

_And towering over her with an emotionless gleam in his eyes was Justek. Their battlefield had been a massive rock hovering close to Sancturia. The dark, starry skies were filled with his ravagers, the Vortexians, in combat with the Ten Tribes. _

_Justek breathed slowly as Auris lashed out at him, silencing her voice as a familiar presence drew in closer. His appearance was sudden, and quiet, landing him on the battlefield a few feet in front of Auris._

_Now close to forty, Sarajin hadn't aged a day. His youthful fervor was a cause of envy. He looked up at his draconic friend and smiled as always. Justek raised his swords and growled like a beast at him._

"_So you have finally arrived, Elemental Overlord..." _

"_Justek..." Sarajin remarked in a tender tone._

"_Sarajin don't...!" Auris butted in with a tearful cry, forcing her hand to reach out towards him._

_Sarajin glanced over his shoulder and arched his brows concernedly. He then smiled and said, "Its going to be ok Auris."_

"_N-No it won't! Don't do this! Please! I'm begging you!" But for as much as she tried fighting fate, Sarajin made his decision for her._

"_Justek...Please send Auris to her father so she can recover safely." _

"_...And why should I heed the request of my enemy?" Justek inquired with a sinister sneer._

"_Oh come on buddy, again with the dramatics?" Sarajin threw his hands up, and just like that, Justek closed his eyes and opened a rift below Auris before she could make another peep._

_Sarajin turned his body aside and glanced Justek straight in the eyes, "Now talk to me. Why are you doing this?"_

"_This is how I regain my freedom, Elemental Overlord...By turning my blade against the world, so there can be no one left to cage me."_

"_And you expect me to believe that?" Sarajin raised one eye and shook his head slightly, "Come on, what's REALLY going on here?"_

_Justek raised his blades a little more and set the innards of his mouth aflame, "There is no truth to perceive but that which is standing before you."_

"_...You know I can't accept that answer, right?" Sarajin summoned a diamond bladed katana with a flick of his right wrist and stared at his friend with a deep fire in his eyes._

"_But...I can tell you want a fight, so I'll accept that!"_

"_Yes. Point your blade at your enemy, so that he may strike you down..." _

_Sarajin thrust his blade out towards the side, and never moved it any further than that, "I don't see an enemy, but a friend whose heart is confused. And my blade and I are gonna cut out all the clout in it so you can think straight again!"_

_Justek closed his eyes and bellow out a mocking laugh, only to find he didn't have it in him to commit, and instead wound up sounding miserable._

"_This is the first time we've ever fought, Elemental Overlord...No, Sarajin. But I will not be holding back. Stay your blade, and I will kill you."_

"_You're welcome to try Justek. Cause I'll be coming at your with everything WE'VE learned together!"_

"_Then you be better come with the intent to kill. There is no other outcome to this fight than one of us dead on the ground..."_

"_Then I will just have to cut open a way to another future!" Sarajin turned his blade on the ground in a flash and wind swirled around his feet. _

"_...Yes you will, won't you?" Justek had a dry chuckle and turned his blades to the ground as well._

"_Because no matter the obstacle...So long as Sarajin's heart stayed strong, he could conquer anything." _Justek raised his head a little back and saw the shadow of the Phoenix of Hope leaping free from the explosion with only half their armor torn off and a little scarring on their chest.

"Hhhh..." Justek locked his blades back at his sides and channeled all the heat his body could exude into them, magnifying their brightness twofold.

The Phoenix swung their sword behind their head and all the light and darkness within lashed out like the glimmer of a neutron star. They must have roared with all their vigor, but Justek couldn't hear a thing. He cracked a grin, and turned his blades to the sky with a valiant thrust. And, for the briefest of moments, the silhouette of Sarajin was overlaid on top of the Phoenix's.

"_Even death, so it seems..." _Justek's heart shook but his purpose remained stronger. He closed his eyes and trusted in his blade to carry out his will, colliding with the swing of the Phoenix's sword.

The collision flooded the arena in a volatile blast of light and black flames, shaking the entire ship...

"_And so, even if its just for this fleeting moment...This caged bird can finally sing..."_

_Next Time: The Messenger_


	31. Chapter 30

**Chapter 30: Justek Final: Towards the Future**

The overwhelming sensation of light throughout the arena fizzled out rather quietly. And when it was over smoke took its place.

"Cgh...cgh!" Someone coughed as they weakly swung their hands out to push some of the smoke away. Then they paused, pulling their palms back and squeezing their fingers in.

"Huh?" They said in a singular voice, which they also noticed right away, "H-Hey! My voice is...back to normal?"

They looked down and saw they were back in their black shirt, blue jeans, and even their hair must have returned to normal. The Phoenix of Hope's time had run out, now it was back to Mew.

"That's bizarre..." He commented, patting himself down all-around, "What happened?"

He wasn't back to full strength, far from it. His heart was beating fast and his legs felt as heavy as anchors. His vision blurred when he tried to move his head too. But this was a far cry from what he was like minutes ago.

As the visibility slowly went up Mew started frantically looking around and asking, "Kairi? HEY! Kairi!"

But he got an unexpected response in the form of, "B-Brother?"

Mew's eyes darted to the right and through the thinning smoke he could see a familiar silhouette waving one arm around to disperse the smoke around them. Riku was alive and in a similar shape as him. His arm was still gone but at least the wound had healed up cleanly.

"What happened?" His thoughts mirrored Mew's perfectly, "When you absorbed my elemental energy its like our...our..."

"Minds and bodies fused together?" Mew crossed his arms and glanced upward. With how heated the battle was getting he hadn't gotten a second to stop and think about the implications of their merger. And right now it really didn't matter to him.

He ran a few steps forward and hugged Riku softly, causing him to recoil a bit in surprise.

"H-Hey, brother..." He muttered in an embarrassed tone.

Mew pulled back and proudly propped his fists onto his hips to proclaim, "See? I told you everything would work out ok!"

Riku waved his arm down and remarked, "Yeah but...how?"

"...Uhhh." Mew didn't have an answer, obviously.

"This is hardly the time for idle speculating..." And lo and behold, the last voice the two wanted to hear came bearing through the smoke, freezing them both towards the direction it came from.

An avalanche of broken black stones fell to the floor and shoved the remaining smoke away, revealing the indomitable Justek in his full draconic glory. The beast held his head high and let the barren handles of his blades fall atop the pile of rubble.

He growled with a mildly tired drawl and then stretched his grin as far as it could. Mew briefly slapped his forehead and proclaimed in disbelief, "Oh my GOD can you just go down already?!"

He motioned his hands aside to get into a combat ready pose while Riku cautiously did the same. Justek glared them down, his eyelids sagging. A moment later he dropped onto his right knee and growled loudly, his breathing hastening somewhat.

"Oh?" Mew's eyes perked up and watched with anticipation until Justek slowly pulled himself back up and laughed at his almost fortuitous show of weakness.

"You had given me a good fight there, 'Phoenix of Hope'...But it seems that much like the current state of the universe, your fusion was unstable. And so, I still stand before you..."

Mew squeezed his eyes and fist shut and then swung it out, widening his eyes with an immense fervor to exclaim, "So what?! You're on your last legs Justek! Riku and I can finish this fight just the way we are!"

"Yeah!" Riku softly agreed.

"So you say..." Justek took a deep breath and exhaled a thick stream of smoke from his nostrils, "It doesn't matter how much you punch me, stab me, cut me...If you cannot reach deep enough, then my body will still stand in your way."

Justek taking one step forward made his opposition tremble. When he stepped forward again, crushing the rubble in his path down to atoms, he growled at them in a deep baritone.

"I am just as determined as you are to see this through to the end. But my purpose is clear...Can you say the same for yourselves?"

Mew tightened his fists and trembled as Justek's shadow loomed over them.

"I proposed a question earlier. Is your reply still the same? Or do you actually HAVE a **real** answer?"

"Here is...MY ANSWER!" A proclamation full of rage preceded a massive orb of black and red darkness crashing into Justek's body, bowling him over onto his back before continuing to fly into the glass.

Mew and Riku looked over their shoulders and were completely surprised to find Joe Dark standing a few feet back in his Dark King form. His hand was tightly gripped around his right wrist as darkness seeped out like steam.

When he lowered his hand his armor shattered and the remainder of his body was drenched in sweat. He was panting like mad for rather understandable reasons. He looked the angriest either Mew or Riku had ever seen.

"Get UP you bastard! There's plenty more where that came from...!" He exclaimed, feigning a stature of absolute confidence.

"...Joe Dark too?" Mew turned an odd eye towards the would-be Dark King but had to look back when he heard Justek stir.

With some pained growls the dragon stood back on his feet in record time and glared Joe Dark down with his head held high, "Oh I'm sure you have a lot more yells where that came from..."

"But as far as attacks go..." Justek laughed deep and condescendingly, "I'd fear a flyswatter before I ever showed concern against you."

"Yuck it up while you can you miserable beast..." Joe Dark lashed his right arm down and summoned his dagger in hand, "YOU WILL PAY FOR BRAINWASHING ME!"

He leaped straight through the air and, predictably, Justek wasn't going to stand there and take it. But he let the Dark King get inches from his face before swiftly opening his mouth and blowing him back with a fire blast.

"Ghhh...!" Joe Dark cut through the fire and flew in again, and so Justek hit him with a second, stronger blast, pinning the flames against the Dark King's arms just to be safe.

Mew and Riku watched as Joe Dark went zooming by overhead...And right into a cushion of rainbow-colored aura, which then proceeded to wrap around and slam him into the ground.

Kairi was behind it with her butterfly wings barely showing and this utterly frustrated look on her face as she squeezed her hand to hold the squirming Joe Dark down.

"K-Kairi?!" Mew uttered in surprise, "I thought you were asleep..."

She turned her glare up at Mew and exclaimed, "How can anybody sleep when you're making all this noise?! Did you, or Riku, or whoever the heck you were a minute ago even REMEMBER I was unconscious while you were tearing up the fabric of reality?!"

"Ahahaha..." Mew happily rubbed the back of his head and said, "Glad to see you're still as spunky as ever Kairi but uhhh...Could you let Joe Dark go? He's kinda helping us now."

Kairi looked at Joe Dark, then finally up to realize Justek was still around. After a brief freak-out expression she exclaimed "You've GOT to be kidding me!" and then unwrapped Joe Dark.

The Dark King stood up, glared at her, but surprisingly did not do anything to her besides scoff before he faced Justek once again.

The arena violently trembled from what was going on outside. A roar shook free from the black hole, and it sounded like it was in pain. Justek was the only one to stand his ground perfectly in the face of this disruption.

"The end is drawing nearer. Soon there will be nothing that can be done to save the 'higher-ups'," Justek waved his right claw towards the four, but pointed at Mew in particular, "I offer you one chance to surrender. May you spite my mercy, I shall show no more..."

Mew glanced over his shoulder and saw Joe Dark's twitchy hand ready to strike and said, "Hey uhhh...I know we met on bad terms before but...Could you PLEASE put aside your differences for now and work together with us? Please?"

Joe Dark glared at Mew in contempt for a brief moment but after rustling his scowl remarked, "You're lucky I hate this dragon more than you right now..."

A good of sign of agreement as any. As for Kairi well, "And what about you Kairi?"

"I'm not giving up until I'm dead!" She proclaimed while struggling to stand fully upright.

Mew looked at Riku and he silently nodded. Mew did the same. Then he looked at Justek and swung his hand down by his hip to say, "Sounds to me like we're going to fight to the bitter end!"

"Heh..." Justek did not utter a growl, but instead began to smile, "And I would've expected nothing less."

He held his claws out and spread his weary wings halfway up, "But this is where your journeys end. I can not, will not, and shall not, bow to your unrefined wills."

"Actually Justek, I've given your question a little more thought..." Mew muttered, clutching his fist before his chest before declaring cheerfully, "AND I STILL DON'T HAVE AN ANSWER!"

The dragon was taken aback as Mew swung his fist down and continued, "But just because we don't now doesn't mean we never will! We deserve a chance to succeed...And so I'm betting it all here and now on that future!"

"A gamble of fate is it?" Justek closed his eyes, the atmosphere howling with a quiet wind as he let out a long, long breath, "...I can respect your resolve, young Mew."

His eyes flared open, and heat rose across his scales to give his body a permanent, dark purple glow. With a bellowing growl, his voice deepened to fit his nature, "But I shall not bow to it!"

"Everyone! This is it!" Mew hunched forward and raised his fists against his enemy, "Give it everything you've got!"

"I will brother. The future..." Riku clenched his fist and a flash of fire rose around his body, "Does not belong to you Justek!"

"You used me as a puppet...You killed Whiter instead of me..." Joe Dark's darkness rose as a mild veil of steam as a glimmer of crimson shone in his eyes, "I don't give a damn about your plans or anything of the sort! You made an enemy of the Dark King, now die!"

"I...I don't know what the future holds for us now..." Kairi took in a deep breath but the steadying of her heartbeat seemed to mend some of the lost aura on her wings, "But I don't want to lose it, or the people I love. Prepare yourself Justek, cause here I come!"

Justek growled, undeterred by their united resolve, "I am ready for you all. _Come_!"

**The Ebony Scarred Betrayer: **_**Justek Arcavira**_

Joe Dark was the first to jump into the fray only to immediately by snatched up in Justek's right claw and piledriven into the ground. Joe Dark impaled his dagger into the back of Justek's hand a few times on the way down.

Mew ran up point-blank with Justek's face and uppercut it back up, cracking the bones in his elbow in the process. Or perhaps it was Justek's jaw that broke. He couldn't tell.

This freed up Joe Dark to back away and lob orbs of darkness into Justek's chest. The dragon still had enough mettle to open rifts and swallow any projectile up. But the rifts opened slower, allowing a couple to slip on by.

Justek lit up his claws in black flame and slashed them out, sending three streaks of them razing the air after Joe Dark and Mew. Joe Dark stood his ground and cut his way through and charged straight for Justek's legs.

The dragon raised his foot and one of his toes was enough to flick Joe Dark back, where he then drove him underneath his foot.

Kairi cushioned the space between Joe Dark and Justek to slow him down, allowing the Dark King seconds to escape. Kairi recoiled when the cushion popped.

Joe Dark dashed in and sliced through the tendons on Justek's left ankles, causing the dragon to tremble from his own weight bearing down on him. He held on tight to his footing and ducked his head under to roast the space between his legs with flames.

Joe Dark was washed over with a tidal wave of the flames and dragged towards the glass. Justek found his neck snagged up in a rope of elemental energy and steadily pulled up, where he found Riku to be his assailant. Riku could hold the rope in one hand as he flew higher up, but the rope itself was unstable and easily broken by a conscious flexing of the dragon's neck muscles.

Justek then lobbed a fire blast into Riku to drag him towards the ceiling. Kairi flew up and pulled Riku out and down to the ground, where they were surrounded by four widening rifts.

Kairi covered them both in a sphere of aura and light beams attempted to burn their way through.

While all that was happening Mew ran and stumbled his way over to bail Joe Dark out of Justek's flames before he was pinned against the glass. Joe Dark was aggressive in glaring at him afterwards but didn't exactly say anything unpleasant about being rescued.

Mew glanced at him and then nudged at Justek's exposed backside. Joe Dark nodded his head and the two leaped at him together, with Mew just a little bit faster.

Mew stretched his right leg out and kicked Justek between his wings, the impact recoiling up to his knee bones. Joe Dark went a little higher and stabbed his dagger into the back of Justek's neck, spearing his brain through the nerves with pain.

The dragon reared his head up and roared with such force it threw his assailants off and broke his concentration on Kairi and Riku.

Riku immediately stood up and tossed two large energy spheres at Justek, which was all he could manage before having to catch his breath. Kairi darted at the dragon alongside and in-between the spheres, making a hard shift to the left when Justek fired a rift laser through the spheres.

She then sped on back to the right and cut straight through the bottom of Justek's knees. The dragon started to fall forward ever slightly, but in doing so swept his claws down and caught Kairi in his left. He grasped her in them both and squeezed, the collective sound of her breaking bones doing little to slow him down.

Kairi pushed her hands down her legs as far as they'd go and activated her aura blades to cut right through Justek's skin and nerves, forcing him to let go. She cut herself in the process but considered it not worth her attention as she flew forward and cut along the length of Justek's arms.

Justek blasted her with a cone of flames before she got to his elbows and pinned her towards the ground even after she put up her aura. Her protection lasted seconds before cracking, and in a couple more seconds it shattered.

A dark rift appeared below her feet and pulled her away to safety. To her surprise she had Joe Dark to thank for it, but he didn't say a word before lunging into the back of Justek's left leg with his dagger.

Justek kicked his leg back to throw him off his dagger, then tossed him through a few rifts to build up momentum and make the impact with the ground that much harder on his back.

Mew dove Justek from behind and kicked him in the same spot as before, throwing in another one for good measure. His legs continued to suffer the brunt of the impact, but he grit his teeth through the pain and hopped towards the dragon's head.

Justek pulled a little to the right so he could turn his head and breathe fire back. Mew pressed on, seeing Kairi coming in for an assist underneath. She made a shotgun that looked a little broken in parts and blasted Justek's jaw so hard it slammed shut and forced his flames back inward.

And then Mew smashed both his fists onto Justek's skull to knock him down. The dragon's neck bent halfway then rose straight back up with a roar so mighty it flung his assailants back.

When the shockwave subsided Justek opened a rift to catch one of Riku's attacks, only for Joe Dark to leap at the rift and slice right through it with his bare hand. He then lunged at the dragon's neck and stabbed his hand through the flesh, failing to reach the esophagus.

Joe Dark didn't care for the acidic blood burning into his flesh. He continued to push further in until Justek forced him off with an explosion around his body. The heat from his scales sizzled out, and he started breathing slower and louder.

He aimed his flames at the rocks on the ground and then tossed them all into one large rift, opening a small set of them over the battlefield. A rain of burning debris bombarded the sluggish Riku until Kairi came in to offer an umbrella of aura, while Joe Dark let the rocks cling and burn on his arms just so he'd have the opening to strike Justek with all his fury.

He leaped at his neck yet again. And Justek grabbed him out of the sky, yet again. But this time the dragon held him in close and blasted him point-blank with his flames. The heat wasn't as high, and even if it were it would do nothing to hold Joe Dark back from stabbing his dagger into the vulnerable skin gap between claws.

Justek growled but this only stalled his flames for a moment. Mew flew in like a brick to his face and diverted the flames long enough for Joe Dark to break free. And still, covered in embers from head-to-toe, the Dark King raised his thimble blade and lunged it down into Justek's skull.

But the hard bone kept his brain out of harm's way. Somehow in all this chaos, Justek's skull had remained relatively intact.

Justek flailed around to get Joe Dark off, but Mew kept his hands braced to the side of his head and then pounded him with a shockwave that used his normal energy.

This rattled the dragon's brain around and allowed Mew freedom to wail on his head for a few seconds while the rest of brimstone rained on Riku and Kairi.

When that had passed Kairi took a couple seconds to catch her breath, her hands hung down to her knees almost.

Riku stepped up and channeled his energy into one large sphere that managed to slip past Justek's rift and hit him in the chest. The dragon took one mighty step back, but retaliated by lunging his claw out with so much force the shockwave from it bowled Riku over.

He then reached up to his face and grabbed Mew, throwing him right onto the ground, and following up with a beam from the rift that dragged him past Kairi as she flew by.

Kairi took a blade in each hand, both half their regular size, and tried to make her way through Justek's obstacle course of rifts and beams to reach his chest. She scraped up against some of the beams and their burning wrath was woven into her muscles. This made her left arm go limp against the side of her body but strengthened the remaining vigor in her right.

She widened her weary eyes and made one final lunge between a pair of expanding rifts to impale Justek's in the chest. Joe Dark followed her up by stabbing right below his neck.

Justek reached inward and pulled them both off, casting them many feet away as blood oozed from his wounds. His heartbeat hastened, his eyelids sagging further. Still the beast roared as strongly as before, as if all the pain was just for show.

Kairi and Joe Dark went for a pincer attack but were quickly caught under a beam's wrath, which both dragged them around and around until they were within Justek's reach. Justek then slammed his palms against their bodies and blasted them away with shockwaves of heat.

Mew planted his elbows down to get up, receiving some assistance from a hunched over and panting Riku. After getting up Mew held his arm before his chest and coughed up some blood. He smiled, his bloodstained teeth doing little to hold back his laughter.

"I'm starting to think he's right...Maybe we **can't** put him down."

"He's not invincible. We just need to hit him where it hurts the most..." Riku pointed at the biggest scar on Justek's chest and Mew started grinning.

"Yeah...Yeah I like the sound of that," Mew flexed his right arm up towards Riku and asked him, "Think you're up for another tag-team operation Riku?"

Riku wrapped his fingers between Mew's and clenched them down tightly, giving a firm nod as he responded, "You take the lead, I'll support you as best I can."

The two of them eyed Justek and funneled all their dwindling elemental energy into one sphere held between their hands. They then hunched down and darted straight towards the dragon.

Justek turned to face them and curled his battered claws inward, cracking the scale and bone. He launched a fire blast straight down the middle at them, then when they swerved to the right he summoned a bunch of rifts to blast them with lasers.

They kept charging straight ahead, even as the beams smashed head first into them. Mew's vision was incredibly blurry but the dragon's size and shape was impossible to unsee. Riku's knees buckled with every step, and he stumbled towards the ground a couple times before picking himself back up.

The elemental energy was actively fighting against Riku's contributions, threatening to break and burn into his arm. Mew helped hold it together but knew they didn't have much time to spare. As risky as it was he kicked up the pace and hoped Riku would do the same.

Justek continued to throw out whatever obstacles he could muster up. Joe Dark suddenly dove in and penetrated his right eye with his dagger. The dragon growled and threw the Dark King off, grabbing him in hand and tossing him towards the ground.

Before Joe Dark recovered Justek stamped his foot down atop his legs and a loud "SNAP!" could be heard coming from them. Then with a "gentle" kick, Justek left the Dark King out of his sights and resumed firing at Mew and Riku.

His blasts were swiftly diverted when Kairi flew in and smashed her fist into his neck. The skin of her knuckles broke but she continued with a few more punches up towards his head. Justek reared his head back and snapped his fangs down on top of her. She barely busted out some aura for protection, but it was quickly put under strain.

Justek gathered up fire and blasted it point-blank into Kairi, dragging her down to the ground with a rather pitiful fireball. Now with only steam exiting his mouth, Justek bit his fangs down in a scowl and forced open even more rifts to impede Mew and Riku's progress.

Even when the beams missed their impact rocked the ground and made it hard for the two to keep their footing. The sounds of them huffing and panting were drowned out as well.

They weren't far away from Justek but it seemed like they still had a mile to cross. The dragon stood tall and his pale shadow wove throughout the battleground. The black hole continued to tremble the fabric of reality and make an already rough situation even rougher.

Mew braced his knees from collapsing and flared his eyes all the way open, huffing defiantly towards his enemy as they flooded the space before them in rifts.

Riku widened his eyes and saw one of the rifts firing close in front of him. There was no time to run and dodge this go around.

"Brother!" Riku hollered right as he forced all his remaining energy into the sphere and broke off of Mew's grasp, pushing just that little bit further ahead to tank the beam in his place.

As Riku went tumbling away Mew couldn't spare a moment to look back. He stiffened his wobbling gaze forward and picked up the pace. His bones were crumbling. His muscles wanted to die. The weight of Riku and his' energy was immeasurable.

He suddenly felt some energy washing over him. It was a little cold, and empty. He glanced to the left and saw Joe Dark pulling himself up to feed him some of his remaining energy, while his legs stayed twisted and bleeding on the ground.

"F-Finish it already Whiter, or I'll kill you in the afterlife!" He was a fighter to the bitter end.

The darkness enlarged the sphere a little bit, but made it start destabilizing. Another wave of energy started washing over Mew, this one feeling a lot more pleasant than before.

He glanced to the right and saw Kairi weakly holding one arm up to give him some of her aura. Her eyes were watering but with a firm nod on her end Mew knew she was just fine. And her contribution helped bind all the energy he was holding down into a perfectly shaped sphere that shone and spun bright with many colors.

Mew leaped straight over Justek's rifts and pulled his arm back. Justek spread his wings and roared as his descent began at a rapid pace. The rifts he summoned weren't enough to push Mew back anymore. He kept falling into the range of Justek's claws, but by expending just a little of the energy he sailed between them and was in perfect striking distance.

"THIS IS...OUR SOUL!" He exclaimed as he thrust the overwhelming force of all those elements straight into the center of the scar on Justek's chest.

The dragon's head lurched back, his heavy feet dragged along the ground. And yet EVEN STILL he fought against the force of their collective wills with all his strength, utterly refusing to budge an inch further after a couple seconds.

"I...will not...YIELD!" Justek shoved his claws and head inward against the magnitude of pulses firing off from the sphere.

He paused. His face turning as pale as a dragon's could when upon looking at Mew, he saw three ghostly hands laid against his back. And again, his mind drifted off...

_It was a slow and quiet day, for once. Justek stood on familiar high ground overlooking the empty, rotted carcass that was once his village. The sun was setting, but he didn't notice it._

_A few moments later Sarajin landed on the rock beside him and remarked, "Hey Justek, I knew I'd find you here."_

_Justek peered a little to the left and remarked, "Back already?"_

"_Yeah, I..." Sarajin took one step forward and his upper body started to lean, and his eyelids bobbed shut. He forced himself upright and shook his head._

"_Hahaha, whoops. Almost lost my footing there." He said while Justek looked at him with a forlorn glance. He settled down on the edge of the perch and laid his hands down by his sides._

_They spent the next few minutes being stationary and looking out at the sunset horizon. A ray of beauty overlaying a field of death. Justek shivered, and tilted his head towards his friend._

_He had closed his eyes and started to snore. Justek gave him a gentle knock on the head with his staff, and he sprung back awake stammering like a loon._

"_Huhh hhuh?" Sarajin faced Justek and told him, "Sorry buddy, I was just thinking about stuff and must've dozed off..."_

"_Sarajin," Justek firmly raised his voice a couple pitches, "You're pushing yourself too hard lately. Helping the tribes, toiling away for those 'higher-ups'...When was the last time you've slept?"_

"_F-Four days ago?" Sarajin's uncertainty worried Justek, "But its not that bad! I've helped out a lot of people!"_

"_I know. But that shouldn't come at the cost of your own well-being," Justek nudged his glasses back up and muttered, "You've been working on peace between the tribes for more than a decade, and the 'higher-ups' for two years. Stretch yourself too thin and you'll snap. And then everything you'll have done will have been for nothing..."_

"_I-I get that Justek but..." Sarajin raised a shaky hand towards his face and had a hard time staring at it, "When I see a person in danger its like it triggers a sense of responsibility in me that I can't ignore."_

"_When I help people, they're happy...And its like...My presence inspires them to strive and do better. So I start thinking...'What if I fail?' What happens to them when they no longer have someone positive to look up to?" Sarajin squeezed his fist and made it tremble harder, "I...I can't look weak in front of them Justek. Too much is riding on me staying strong."_

_He glanced up to the right and said, "Part of me always goes back to what happened to your people."_

"_I-It does...?" Justek remarked._

"_Yeah...If the tribes had been more unified back then, then maybe...Maybe we would've been able to be there to stop 'D.' from wiping out your home."_

"_..." Justek looked away from his friend and towards the village, his heart beat quickening._

"_It'll happen someday Justek. I believe in it...A future where all ten tribes, even the Aurians, work together. A world where nobody has to die having accomplished nothing. A world where...we can all be happy..." _

_Sarajin let out a mighty yawn and he hunched over, undisturbed by gravity. He snored rather loudly, but Justek decided not to disturb him. The dragon closed his eyes, and would stand there until the morning came about, knowing full well the consequences of his actions..._

Justek fell into silence, his will to resist rotting against the face of the ghosts of the past that seemed to press the young Mew on. The Dark King on the left, Auris on the right, and Sarajin, his most trust friend, standing right in the middle.

"...Hrrrnn..." He let out a growl that ended on a chuckle, and then his eyes slowly drew to a close.

"_You always had better eyes than I...Sarajin..." _Justek raised his head up high and the energies of their final attack filled his innards. Blood exploded out of his entire backside between the scales, getting caught up on his body as he was propelled off his feet into the glass wall, which cracked to the ceiling on impact.

The blood smeared upon the glass as Justek fell to the ground...on his feet. Mew was too out of breath to even muster up the strength to react. It took everything he got left just to stand.

Justek's eyes slowly creaked open, his body so drenched in blood that he looked more yellow than black. A quiet growl emerged between his fangs, his gaze only set upon Mew.

"...Children of sin..." His mouth moved a tiny bit towards a smile, and his eyes started closing as he whispered, "Thank you..."

He dropped to his knees, and then so did the rest of his body, ending with his head flat on the floor as quiet as a feather falling.

"Haaa...haaa...We...We did it..." Mew fell onto his knees, and then collapsed onto his stomach. He pressed his face against the floor and let out a huge sigh of relief.

But it was a victory that wasn't to last. Space trembled far more violently than it ever had before. Mew poked his head up and could barely visualize the black hole outside.

"Oh...oh yeah..." Even if Justek was down, his black holes still had enough fight in them to finish the job. But nobody here had the strength to stand up, let alone take on such a massive anomaly.

Yet even as the end drew near, Mew smiled, feeling no concern for the future. As a massive, white light flushed out of the black hole and consumed everything in its path, Mew closed his eyes, and drifted off into sleep...


	32. Chapter 31

**Chapter 31: Inherited Wills**

Floating. Floating, in an endless sea of white waters. Mew found his body drifting, caressed in their gentle waves. He had a decent smile and looked comfortable just laying there and letting himself move on ahead towards an unknown destination.

There were gentle ripples on the surface as someone approached him, their face covered by the shadows the light cast upon them.

"_Hey...You did a good job out there." _They said to Mew with a youthful echo in their voice.

"_Sorry you had to clean up my mess...Again. But...I really think you made my buddy happier than I ever could have back then." _The figure sighed and slowly rubbed the back of their head while looking towards the sky.

"_...Huh, I thought I'd have a lot more to say right now but...I guess that's it! I was never good at that whole 'big speech' thing anyways." _The figure bent down and patted Mew on the back of the head to keep him heading towards a big beaming void of light in the distance.

"_Just keep up the good work Mew. You weren't what I expected but...I feel I made the right choice regardless," _The figure stood up and started to walk away from the light, only to snap his fingers by his hip and murmur, _"Oh right..."_

He then turned his head back and hollered, _"When you get back, tell Auris 'Sorry, I'm going to be away a little while longer'."_

The figure drifted away into the sea of white right as Mew started opening his eyes with a murmur, while his body entered the void...

…

…

"Ch...Chhrp chhrrp!" The gentle pitch of a bird's voice ran through Mew's ears, while a soft breeze crawled over his body.

"Mmmrrr..." He started to open his eyes, and watched as a sparrow fluttered off from beside his face as quick as a dart. He then thrust his eyes open after his heartbeat hastened.

The moment he budged he felt two things: The graze of many individual grass blades against his arms, and each hand holding onto another.

He was resting on an open hilltop. Riku was to his right. Kairi was to his left. The sun beating down on them from above. They were completely out of it, but their smiles showed they were content.

"_What's...going on?" _The memories of a moment ago were still fresh in Mew's head, _"We defeated Justek and then...There was a light from the black hole." _

His pupils shrank and he did a double-take towards the sun. It was bright and yellow, and definitely NOT a black hole. The sky was its usual shade of blue, and not a single bit out-of-place.

He then swung his head around and fully took in the grass. And that's when he noticed that there was no sign of the Ark, or anyone else that had been on board save for the three of them.

All his fidgeting around caused Riku and Kairi to stir. Kairi awoke first, quicker than Mew had. She smacked her lips and Mew glanced back her way. Usually this'd be the time where he'd go "Morning sleepyhead" but the opportunity appeared to have escaped him.

"Unnn..." She cooed in a rather cutesy manner. By the time her eyes were fully open Mew hadn't thought of what to say to brace her for what'd she see.

He let her slowly swivel her head and examine the grass and sky, but her head stopped, looking down towards Mew's hand. Her eyes got full and her cheeks turned rosy red.

All Mew could do was drop some canned laughter to fill the silence until Kairi glared at him, which got him to clam up instantly. She pulled her hand free so hard it nearly pulled Mew to the ground, then proceeded to stop looking at him for a good while.

Riku was, unsurprisingly, a lot more subdued in his awakening. He picked up on the shift in scenery right away and commented, "Brother how..."

When he looked straight at Riku's stunned expression he saw him take a moment to find his voice and finish his sentence off, "Where are we?"

Mew grabbed the grass between his fingers. The had a fine texture and were a little damp. The air was fresh and clean. The sun felt warm on his skin.

"It...feels like we're back on Earth..." But given how things ended with Justek, they could have just as easily been sent to Heaven. Mew didn't want to consider that, so he stood right up and thought to take a look around for civilization.

And what he saw the moment he did dropped his jaw like an anvil and left him a stuttering mess of garbled words.

They were overlooking the city of Seattle, completely restored to the state it was in before Alex had attacked. Traffic was jammed up, but that's pretty normal. Otherwise the city was bustling, and everyone was going about their daily lives.

The grounds outside the city were clean as well. All the scarring from Solaris' attack had healed up. Or perhaps...it was as though Solaris had never attacked at all.

Riku joined him a few steps behind and Kairi a moment after. Their expressions were a little more tame than Mew's exaggerated face, but they felt a similar level of shock.

"This is impossible..." Riku whispered.

"E-Everything's...fine." Kairi followed.

Fine? Sure. The universe isn't under the threat of a bunch of black holes. The Earth is restored. Justek's been defeated...

But as Mew looked back to his brother, he saw that his right arm was still gone. And with there being no signs of anyone else, there was something very off about all this.

Mew tried to calm down and think of an idea to help sort through this mess of confusion. And the best he could come up with was, "Why...why don't we go back home and check the news?"

Riku and Kairi bobbed their heads. Not like they had any better ideas. The three of them then took off to Mew's house, which wasn't too far away, fortunately. After getting inside Mew quickly turned on the TV and it was still on the news channel he had left it on.

The immediate thing they noticed was that the date was one day later than it was yesterday. That was close to how much time had passed during this whole affair. But the top news story would only give the trio more questions than it would answers.

"_We're live in Seattle one day after a sudden fire sparked downtown, burning down two buildings before it was put out. There are a reported 15 injured and 10 dead, including our national Secretary of Defense, Judas Jeremiah. Officials have been quiet about why he was in town, but rumors suggest it was to visit his daughter. The source of the fire has yet to be confirmed too, but many are suspecting it was one of the man's many, many enemies..."_

Mew zapped the TV off and sat at the edge of the couch slack jawed. He glanced over at Riku leaning quietly against the column, and Kairi standing next to him with her eyes wide-open.

After a moment of silence to process all this Mew forced out a cough and muttered, "W-Well...Uhhh...Anyone? Anything?"

"It really is like nothing happened..." Riku commented.

"But it had to have right? Cause..."

"I lost my arm..." Riku waggled his stump out.

"Nooo..." Mew replied, "Because we remember what happened. Right?"

"...Right?" He said again with a perked glare at Kairi.

She swiftly nodded her head a few times and remarked, "R-Right! Alex attacked us and rampaged through the city. You fought him, Riku came to help...I evacuated the citizens..."

"My memories line up with yours." Riku said, clearly distressed.

"So what the hell? What the actual HELL?!" Mew exclaimed as he flung his arms out, stood up, and did a 180 twirl in place while trying to get his facts straight.

They all needed a little time for that. The house was silent save for the creaking of the floorboards as Kairi paced around the room. Mew folded his arms against his chest and let out a quick, frustrated grunt before looking up towards the ceiling. And that's when he got an idea...

"Mr. Reality..." He muttered, drawing Riku's attention.

"The alien?"

"Yeah yeah..." Mew turned around and snapped his fingers out a couple times in quick succession, "When I ran into him on the Ark he said something about fulfilling Justek's request but not knowing what the translation of the request was. What if Justek included a reset button in it?"

"...Why would he do that?" Riku remarked.

"Uhhhh, I don't know..." Mew paced his thoughts a little bit before coming back with a response, "Why did Justek do a lot of what he did?"

"...Ummm, it was because it was part of his plan right?" Kairi suggested.

"He told us his plan but he never told us WHY he went about it the way he did. I don't think he was lying but..."

"He didn't tell us the full truth..." Riku closed his eyes and grumbled to himself.

"Yeah exactly. Even after we beat him, I don't think we ever got to know the real Justek."

"...Uuuugh, I'm confused!" Kairi slumped her shoulders and sighed, "So what does any of this MEAN?!"

"Well, call it a shot in the dark but..." Mew closed his eyes and tackled this with a serious tone of voice, "I think Justek was looking for a worthy successor to the original Elemental Overlord's will. And since we proved that to him, he didn't see a reason to go through with his plans?"

The other two stared at Mew for what seemed like a very long while but neither of them thought he was crazy. Though Riku did have a theory of his own to mention.

"It could also be that we killed him and without his will sustaining the black holes, the 'higher-ups' were able to overpower them and fix everything."

"I mean yeah sure that's possible but..." Mew paused for a moment, turned to the TV, and turned it back on where the news was still covering the same story, "Then how would you explain that?"

Riku glanced at the TV and then pulled his head back and murmured, "Beats me brother...I still don't know how we even got back to Earth."

"Well, we drifted through a white sea..." Mew rubbed the back of his thought and only NOW did the two of them look at him like he was crazy, "What?"

"That didn't happen to me..." Riku remarked.

"Me neither. Mew, are you feeling ok?" Kairi murmured in concern.

"...Uhhh, maybe not." He had to admit, even coming from his mouth that sounded a little crazy.

"Maybe its for the best that we don't think too deeply about this right now..." Riku suggested, "Justek's dead, and the world is safe."

"You got a point Riku. This is a cause for celebration!" Mew clapped his hands and Kairi jumped in place, to his confusion.

"Gabriel!" She exclaimed.

"Gabriel?" Mew widened his eyes and threw his body back, his arms going further than the rest, and realized, "Oh CRAP I forgot he was kidnapped!"

"No its ok. I found him in the Ark and brought him to that alien friend of yours..." Kairi gathered her thoughts and then suddenly perked up. She took a couple steps towards Mew and pressed her fists up against her chest.

"I-I'm going to Sancturia to see if he was brought back!" She then rushed towards the door, giving Mew enough time to collect himself.

"And if he's not there come back and we'll help you find him!" Mew hollered.

Kairi had the door partway open before freezing and turning her head back, looking at Mew with a soft, melancholic stare, "Mew...I...I'm going to be gone for a few days, ok?"

"..." Mew slowly lowered his hands and gave a firm, understanding nod, "Take your time Kairi. I'll be here."

She pressed up a small smile and was out the door the next second. Mew wandered over to the window and cracked the drapes to see her take off, then let out a sigh and retreated back to where he started.

"Its over...But it doesn't really feel _over_, eh?" Mew fell against the couch and sank into the velvety leather like a cannonball.

"Justek's gone, but he left behind a lot for us to think about..."

"Forget those thoughts, what about the other people on the Ark?" Mew tilted his head at Riku and remarked, "Lunis and Solaris are still alive and once they find out their dad's dead they're going to high-tail it down to Earth seeking revenge."

"And we'll be there to stop them." Riku responded assuredly.

"Of course. It'd be great if we could try and talk them out of it but..." Mew slowed down near the end and leaned his head back into the couch.

"Something on your mind?" Riku inquired.

"I'm thinking about Joe Dark..."

"I was surprised that he showed up..." Riku murmured.

"Yeah, and that he actually helped us fight Justek."

"His hatred was always towards Alex Whiter. He was indifferent to us."

"But now that Alex is gone...I wonder what he's going to do?"

"It was his only purpose in life. I can't imagine how he feels now..."

"..." Mew had the foresight to know that his idea was a terrible one, but he couldn't help but say it out loud, "I want to find him and bring him back home."

"Brother...Are you sure that's a good idea? He's mentally unstable, especially now. I doubt he'll want to listen to someone that reminds him of his greatest enemy."

"But if we leave him alone he could break down completely and become the next Dark King. I-I know its stupid and selfish but..."

"That's just the way you are brother..." Riku smiled slightly and opened one eye towards Mew, "I'm just reminding you of the risks. I think you'd actually have a chance of getting through to him, unlike with Alex."

"Yeah. This is a chance to bury the hatchet for good," Mew paused for a bit and then remembered something else, "Oh, and while we're at it...I need to find Mr. Reality and fulfill that promise I made to him. Hey, three years is better than never!"

"And at some point or another, we're going to have to investigate more about the 'higher-ups'." Riku remarked, his voice dripping with dread.

"And the witch that tormented Alex into insanity..." Mew said, keeping that almost entirely to himself.

"What was that?" Riku noted.

"Nothing...Haaaaa..." Mew faked a yawn and stretched his arms over his head, "I'm just feeling a little tired."

"So am I..." Riku said, letting out a genuine yawn. He peeled off the wall and turned the corner facing the hallway.

"Bedroom's back here right?" He inquired pointing that way.

"Yeah sure. We only got one bed though..." Right after saying that Mew waved his hand back a few times and said, "Go ahead and take it Riku. I'll be fine on the couch."

"Thanks, brother..." Riku tiredly walked the way back into the room.

Mew leaned into the couch and his eyes started to sink. Partway down he looked to the right and then opened them back up. He hung his hands over his legs, and then felt driven to stand up and head outside for a moment...

_They say no matter how much time may pass, the past can never be erased. It can be suppressed, and ignored, even forgotten, but never will its presence fade._

_Children should never have to answer for the mistakes of their ancestors..._

Up in Sancturia, Kairi rushed through the city to get back home. She didn't let herself get distracted by anything else, even though the city hadn't been fixed.

Panting, heaving, Kairi was feeling faint from exhaustion and her eyes started to close as she neared her home. Right as her hand reached for the door, her sweating body drooped towards the ground, and she began to fall...

Into the hands of the one she came to see.

His big, but gentle touch gave her a little more energy to look up and see his bearded face smiling with pride. Gabriel propped her up, where she was quick to fold her arms around his waist and hold on tight, causing mild discomfort to him thanks to his wound.

But as her tears rolled down onto his armor he embraced her behind the head and held her close. She couldn't speak, she was too busy whimpering with joy.

After a few moments of this the doorway was parted behind them and Auris walked into view. Gabriel let up enough to allow Kairi to look her mother in the eyes. There was a coldness to their stares, a bridge that'd take a long time to mend.

"...I've been dishonest to you for long enough, Kairi..." Auris bowed her head and closed her eyes, then turned and began to make her way inside, "Come. Sit down. Its time I told you what happened to Shina..."

_And sometimes, the past manifests itself as a phantom, clinging on, refusing to let go..._

Riku laid down on his brother's bed and his weary eyes glazed over. He wiggled his stump upward, staring towards the empty space where he could _feel _his arm reaching towards.

His eyes wobbled, and as he bit his lower lip he slammed his stump against the bed and whimpered aloud...

_But they aren't to be feared, but to be learned from. And if you have an open ear, their lessons can keep the mistakes of the past from repeating. And maybe, just maybe, these children from the present, who have endured the scars of sins past, will be able to mold a brighter future with their very hands..._

Outside, Mew stood up from the side of the house and clapped a bit of dirt off his hands. He smiled, and a single tear ran down his left cheek, his voice cracking as he murmured, "See you later...brother."

He walked away from a small gravestone with the words "Alex Whiter. 2025 to 2041. A brother...and a friend" etched cleanly onto it...

Far, far off the planet, on the surface of the moon, Justek laid flat on his back and faced the blue-green planet with barely the strength to smile. He had returned to his human form, his skin and torn clothes covered in his own dried blood.

"I almost wish I could live to see it..." Justek murmured and let his weary eyes rest, cracking a smirk as he then said, "And the future you'd craft as well..."

A pair of feet land next to him, their body brimming with a thick aura of darkness, while their red eyes gave the man a repugnant glare.

"Hmmm, Joe Dark?" Justek remarked, accenting his voice with a bit of wit.

_Next Time: The Truth of Birth_


	33. Final Chapter

**Final Chapter: Black to White**

Justek laid there with a wily smile as Joe Dark pressed his chest down underfoot. The Dark King's scowl trembled as he raised his right palm towards his face and began charging it full of darkness, amplifying the glow around his body.

"Must you be so aggressive towards a dying old man?" Justek said, humoring the boy's murderous attitude.

"You deserve much worse after what you've done..." Joe Dark barely fit his words through his teeth, "Whiter was MINE. You had no right to kill him!"

"Oh?" Justek's lips quivered with surprise, and he let out a dry laugh in response, "That's what you're most upset about? I thought you'd want me dead for mind-controlling you."

Joe Dark's foot pressured his chest and made the rib cage crack at the center, "I _haven't_ forgotten about that you swine! You're going to answer for everything! Right here, right NOW!"

"Honestly..." Justek wearily shook his head and fluttered his right fingers off the ground, "You should be grateful. I chose you out of everyone I could have to help me."

"Hrrrngh! Do not lie to me you bastard!" Joe Dark exclaimed.

"I wish I could just lie my way out of this but I am a dead man whether through time or by darkness' hand," Justek closed his eyes without a care and continued to laugh, "But you don't seem TOO pressed to end me, now do you?"

"You're right, I could end you with a snap of my fingers..." Joe Dark growled confidently, his eyes narrowing to blister the man's soul with his glare, "But you're not getting off that easily. You'll live until you answer for everything you've done!"

"My my, then I better hurry...I can already feel my heart beat weakening. Though...your foot isn't really helping matters." Justek cracked a sly grin in Joe Dark's direction, and after giving it some thought he slowly dragged his foot off the man's chest. But he kept the darkness aimed at his face, just to be safe.

"Ah, much better," Justek settled his heart rate with a slow cough or two and then rested his head upon the ground, "I know much about you Joe Dark. More than you even know about yourself."

"Like I haven't heard that one before..."

"Yes I'm sure you have. You've exchanged ownership with so many masters its almost hard to keep track..." Justek knew every word of his was equally volatile to the boy, but he might as well get a few kicks in before he goes. Joe Dark's forehead scrunched up and he almost looked like a vampire hissing to scare someone.

"Cackletta, the Dark King, the dark shadow of the Phoenix of Destruction, and even the melancholic reality bender...You went to so many others for help with your problem. Two strung their strings around your neck and led you astray, while the other two you misled on your own directionless journey..."

"All that so you could kill **one** person," Justek creaked his head towards the would-be Dark King and muttered coldly, "And just how much of your life has been wasted trying to succeed in that goal? More than half, I want to say..."

"Get. To. The point!" Joe Dark growled, barely constraining his anger.

Justek closed his eyes and let out a short, soured sigh before he continued, "You molded this life of yours out of your hatred for this one boy, but I only knew that boy personally for a day and yet had far more reason to despise him than you ever did. And in just one day, I killed him. So tell me, truthfully...How DOES that make you feel?"

The boy made it pretty clear how he felt when he went over to his left leg and stomped down onto his brittle kneecap. Justek hardly flinched and even laughed a little at his own pain.

"How dare you..." Joe Dark growled and wrenched his head back with a face fraught with anguish, "That bastard killed my FAMILY! Not just my mother, or my father, but every single relative I had! And you...that think your pain compares to mine?!"

"This is where a broader perspective of things differentiates us, Joe Dark..." Justek gave a brief pause so the boy could calm down even a tiny bit, "This is one of the things I know better than you do. You blame Alex Whiter for the demise of your family but while that's true, its not the FULL truth...He was a pawn of a political power play between your father and Prometheus, a man whom you'd know better as Judas Jeremiah."

"W-What...?" Joe Dark looked puzzled, but still a bit enraged.

"Alex Whiter was a victim of circumstance just that one time..." Justek opened his eyes to a narrow, hateful glare as his tone dropped in pitch, "But when he stole my best friend's soul, and made it his slave...That was all his choosing."

Joe Dark's scowl shook and he wrenched his head back away from Justek, exclaiming in a bitter manner, "I have no reason to believe a word you say...! And even if I did what does it matter?! My family's blood is still on his hands, and he had no problem rubbing it in my face!"

"I get the feeling we're going to be stuck in a stalemate regarding who deserved to kill Alex Whiter...Even though the target of our revenge is dead for good."

Joe Dark's fists tensed up, briefly dispersing the energy he had built. He pulled his head back and squeezing his eyes shut, his whole body trembling.

Justek sighed to himself and then addressed the boy in a more formal tone, "I must wonder...What was your endgame here, Joe Dark?"

Joe Dark pulled his head back and grit his bare teeth at the man, furious to the core as he uttered one powerful, but simple word, "Revenge."

"Revenge..." Justek had a close relationship with that word, perhaps more than he cared to admit, "And then what?"

Joe Dark froze for a moment and then replied, "...Revenge was all that mattered."

"I understand that," Justek's expression soured and he weakly shook his head, "And pity you for it just the same..."

Joe Dark turned his whole body around and stomped back over to Justek's chest, propping his hand full of raging darkness over his face as he yelled, "I didn't ask for your pity! Now stop with these mind-games!"

Justek merely smiled and cocked his head towards the boy, "I know what you want more than anything in the world...Its to have a family again."

Joe Dark didn't shout back.

"You lost everything on that day...Your burning desire for revenge filled the void of loss in your soul but it couldn't entirely blot out a yearning for the love of a family once again. For so long you went and assumed that you could never reclaim that...But what if I told you that you were wrong?"

"Ghhh...!" Joe Dark shivered, the first of many defenses in his subconscious faltering, "You're lying...!"

"I say again, what would lying achieve for me? I am a dead man either way...So if I must die now, then I may as well..." Justek paused, closed his eyes, and thought, _"No. I'd be saying too much...And I've already shown enough weakness to this boy as is."_

He hastily shifted tracks on the conversation to his main point, "You do not know this, but I am clairvoyant. I have seen your life to this point play out before it had come to pass."

"Where's your proof?" "Where's your proof?" The two said at the exact same time. Joe Dark froze in place and his skin somehow turned even paler. Justek asserted himself with a smile, then took advantage of the boy's silence to keep going.

"And though your adopted family was wiped out completely...There are members of your **real** family that are still alive."

"A...adopted? R...real?" Joe Dark shook some more, his mind forcibly recoiling from more of his subconscious breaking down.

"Come now you must've suspected something was different about you. You looked nothing like your 'mother' or your 'father', for one."

Joe Dark's hand slowly rose to his face as he muttered "S-Shut up!", forced out past the pain in his throbbing head.

"Or what about your innate connection to the darkness? You weren't given that power by Cackletta. She merely drew out what you already had."

"If you do not shut up I'll...!"

"And what about Alex Whiter?!" Justek raised his voice to shock and overpower the boy's own, "WHY were you so inclined to chase after him of all people? He, who had barely little connection to your life until that fated moment?"

"It is because deep down you _remembered_ who he was to you...A bond, that could never be broken by distance or time. A bond...of brothers."

"B...B...Br...Brothers?!" Joe Dark was seething with pain, his hand clutched so tightly around his head that he looked ready to break it. Justek could see the boy's mind being torn apart through his eyes, but that could not deter him from pressing on.

"Twin brothers, to be precise. How ironic...You longed for revenge and family and that same person held the answer to both," Justek cocked his head back and had a pleased smile on his face, "Such is the pitiful life of Joseph Whiter..."

Joe Dark screeched and wailed as he turned his darkness filled hand upon Justek's face and filled it even more. His voice echoed his mind: Torn, pained, and lacking cohesion...

"Kill you...break your lying face...!"

"I ask of you again Joe Dark...'And then what?' You have prowled the universe to kill your last relative of flesh and blood. Even death could not stop you for long...But now you have nothing. No sense of fulfillment from your revenge. No hope of reclaiming your family. You are as empty and lonely as the depths of space, bereft without a purpose..."

"Ha! I almost wish I could live, just to see what kind of future an empty man can build..." Justek closed his eyes and started to feel cold. His body was giving in, but Death wouldn't be granted the pleasure of taking his body on its own terms. Joe Dark would have that honor, for what little worth it mattered...

"I will build a future...on top of your grave, JUSTEK!" Joe Dark's patience and mental-state had been exhausted completely. All he had to look forward to was finishing this pitiful old man off for good. The comfort of which Justek laid there and accepted this would only lessen the value of this murder even more.

"_To think that I would die here...It was always a possibility but...I had honestly expected to win. Did I give it my all? Absolutely. Was there anything I would have changed? Of course. But...do I truly have any regrets?" _

…

…

_A long time ago, on the outskirts of Sancturia, Sarajin and Justek met at their usual spot as the evening stars watched over them from above. _

"_You wanted to talk to me Sarajin?" Justek said, feigning confusion._

"_Yeah, didn't you hear?" Sarajin said, propped up with excitement, "Me and Auris are getting married in a few days!"_

"_I-I see..." Justek replied, his heart sinking even slightly._

"_Its going to be a secret one though. She's worried about her dad finding out. But we're inviting everyone who can attend outside of Sancturia!"_

"_Then I am to assume I am precluded? Sarajin, you wound me..." Justek replied with a soft, wily smile._

"_Of course not! You've got to attend!" Sarajin nudged him in the ribs and then winked, "Who else can be my best man but my best friend?"_

_Justek stayed silent for a few seconds and then bowed his head and replied, "I would be honored, Sarajin...I will do my best to not arouse suspicion."_

"_Great! Looking forward to it!" After that Sarajin went on for a bit talking about how much his relationship had changed with Auris over the years. Justek barely paid attention to most of it, as his heart struggled with his mind to say what he wanted to say._

_He continued glancing at his best friend and how happy he was. There was a light in his eyes that wouldn't fade. A beautiful, captivating light that the man coveted for himself. How could he look into those eyes and even consider ruining what they meant to him? _

_Would being selfish, just this once, truly be a crime worth committing? Justek sat on these thoughts for a good long while and..._

…

…

…_Bbzzzztt..._

"_Sarajin." Justek finally stopped his friend from rambling on and waited for him to face his way._

"_Is...something the matter?" He was attuned to the pain on his friend's face. Justek's smile wobbled, but his heart felt clear of doubt. He looked his friend in the face and muttered to him softly..._

"_I love you."_

…

…

_...But that was merely a thought of what could have been. A reckless dream that only served to pain Justek in his final moments._

"_...Of course I do," He muttered to his own question, "Too many to count."_

"_I am leaving my children to fend for themselves in a world they don't recognize anymore. Lunis, Solaris...You think you owe so much to me and yet in truth it is the opposite. I was not the father I could have been, and I wish I could say sorry one more time...But even if my words could somehow reach, I would tell them to not hate the ones who killed me. My death is the consequence of my own actions, and I embrace them fully..."_

"_Auris...You and I never saw eye-to-eye on all things. You had every reason to be cautious around me and I willingly fed into your paranoia. But you stood by Sarajin's side through thick and thin. You're the strongest woman I ever met. And I don't want you to ever forgive me."_

"_Sarajin...You always wanted the best for the world, and I wanted to make that possible, even if it was through means you'd never approve of. I chided your 'successor' for acting on blind hatred, but I see now that I was no better than him...I despised how the world 'rewarded' you for your benevolence and demanded retribution in your name. It was selfish, foolish, but I would have had it no other way. It was the least I could have done...Thank you, Sarajin, for being a friend..."_

Justek opened his eyes and saw only black. Joe Dark's energy was still present with its pale purple glow and haunting whir. Weakly cracking a smile, the man raised his hand to take off his glasses and stare blankly ahead.

"_Ah...finally. No more clairvoyance. I can see the world as I was meant to see it...Blind, shrouded in the black abyss..." _

He took a deep breath and the darkness quietly cascaded over his body. His last moment, spent with a smile...

The darkness erupted half a mile high and could be barely seen on the planet if someone were to try. When it was over a newly formed crater replaced Justek's remains, and Joe Dark was left floating over it panting madly like a thirsty dog.

His face squirmed as he plummeted to the ground on his knees. His heart was in turmoil and his body drenched in a mad sweat. He squeezed his hands against the sides of his head and tossed around in agony. He couldn't escape the man's words...

Overcome with memories that were too real to ignore, Joe Dark exploded with dark energies that swept across the moon's surface. And finally, he gripped his fists to his sides and wrenched his head back, screaming louder than the sounds of the ground shattering beneath him.

_For he was truly, truly alone..._

**CLASH OF THE ELEMENTS PART 6 (r): THE SCARS OF SINS PAST...**

**THE END. **


	34. Epilogue

The wind was cold...

...The wind...Could be felt?

"Mrrrggg..." Someone opened their dry, weary eyelids and even the minuscule grains of pollen in the air scratched their eyes on contact.

Tired. Weak. What was going on? Why were they there?

They couldn't move their arms or legs...If they even had any to begin with. Their head, however, was resting on a bed of grass. They weakly grunted and tried pulling their head up. Every bone in their body fought back with cracks and groans like rusted metal.

"I...I am..." Their voice scratched out of their dusty throat before they broke out into a horrible coughing fit.

They were breaking down. Was it even worth it to move? ...Something inside forced them to give it a try anyways.

They felt something curl inward onto a flatter surface. Fingers...and a palm. They had hands, and arms. Good...It was a start. Their fingertips brushed along something fluffy. A dandelion? Then...that'd mean it was Spring? Summer? Why would there be a dandelion in space? ...Why were they thinking about space?

They grazed their fingertip along the dandelion again and this time, their body began to absorb it on instinct. They recoiled their fingers and a brief shock went up their arm. It was...refreshing. Scary. But refreshing.

"I am..." Their voice came out a little more clearly, and they coughed less than before. It was obvious they needed to absorb more of their environment to heal up, and perhaps that'd help them regain their memories.

There was plenty of grass to go around so what would it matter if they drained it? It wasn't long after when they felt they could lift their head off the ground. And a few moments after they were able to bend their elbows and knees.

Their vision was much clearer now. It was nighttime. The sky was full of stars. They were resting on an open field, with the closest trees being a mile out east. Of course they were there. This is Earth.

...Earth? What...is Earth? Earth is...home? Some memories were starting to come together, others were a blur. Their name was split into pieces. "-le- -h-te-"

After absorbing more of the grass they tried standing up. Their knees were very wobbly and they fell right back down. But they tried it again right away and were met with success. Though they couldn't move, it was a start. Standing tall they got to see a little more of the plains. There was a small two-story house in the distance with their lights on. They were the only residence around here.

Once their body was feeling up to it, they decided to drag their feet towards the house. It was an arduous task. It came to a point where simple blades of grass weren't giving up enough energy to help them out. They took a look at themselves.

Their skin was a light shade of gray in some parts with scarring down to the muscle tissue underneath. Their right hand looked especially torn up, like it had been dipped in fire for an hour.

"Alex..." They muttered, a sharp twinge of pain going through their head trying to prevent them from finishing the sentence, "W-Whiter...?"

That was their name. Alex Whiter. And by remembering who he was, Alex could vividly recall more and more. He was an Elemental Overlord. He had fought a powerful enemy...He had...died?

Then, was this Heaven? No...something told him he wouldn't deserve that. And why would Heaven take on the appearance of Earth, the place he didn't feel comfortable being on anymore?

It was by being lost in these thoughts that he failed to notice his approach to the house. He bonked his forehead against the front door and recoiled onto his back.

He creaked his head back and felt small against the shadow of this two-story building. It looked like a decent, cozy household. Someone obviously had taken good care of it.

Alex pulled himself up and heard footsteps at the door. And then a loud female voice came hollering out, "Yeah hold on!"

He was here so he might as well stick around and see what happens. He hardly had the strength to run though if the house owner suddenly pulled out a gun.

The door was kicked open and slammed against the house. A woman a few inches short of five feet with a mess curtain of azure-colored hair stood under the door frame carrying a baby in each arm...And both of them were suckling on her bare, flat-chested teets.

Alex glared at the woman with no shift in expression, _"One bullet...right between the eyes."_

The woman looked up and down Alex's body and bluntly remarked, "Wow you look like crap. Did a bear spit your dirty ass out and leave you for dead?"

Alex closed his eyes and nothing else, _"Maybe two bullets, just to be safe..."_

"Ah, come on in and take a breather...What do I care?" The woman threw all caution to the wind and spun back around into her house. Her body was dressed in a plaid night gown that was so thin it left little to the imagination.

Alex was too beat down to really give a shit though and wandered into the house dragged along by his concrete-filled feet. It was nice and warm in here and the boy could feel his aching muscles relax a little.

He glanced to the right but barely got time to explore when he heard one of the babies crying. He turned to the right and saw a crib for each child, and the gal having trouble putting them into it.

"Ugh again with the crying? Whaddya want I ain't exactly a cow!" She managed to get them down, her methods being rather...forceful for a supposed mother.

She plopped her hands onto the backs of the cribs and then stuffed the sides of her head between them to let out a long, frustrated sigh.

"Yeah, yeah...I guess I have no choice..." She pulled her head out and took in a deep, deep breath. Casting aside all her stress, she closed her eyes and her small body looked a lot softer as she began to hum.

"Hmmm hmmm hmm...hmmm hmm...hmm hm hmmmm hmm hm hmm..." Her serenade was that of a melodious goddess. The baby was lulled to sleep in seconds, a smile present on both their faces.

Alex stood there, and after a few seconds he felt tears rolling down his cheeks. He jolted awake and brushed the tears off his skin.

"_What...?" _He turned to face the woman and her melody kept going for a little while longer. When it was done, she let out the rest of her breath through her nose and then cocked a smirk.

"I dunno why you kids love that one song so much..." She muttered.

She then pulled away from the cribs and buttoned her dress for decency sake. She then hopped on over to Alex and propped her fists on her hips, putting her chin right up against his chest and staring deep into his eyes like they were standing as equals.

"Hey shut the door! My kids'll get pneumonia!" She demanded.

Alex froze there with his eyes wobbling and his gaze darting around the foyer. There was a living room to the left, with a leather couch and familiar TV. A kitchen was behind it, barely big enough to fit more than two people. A hallway stretched down to a bedroom and a bathroom. And, the whole place was two stories tall. The song the woman had sang was too familiar. And the more Alex looked at her, the more her face cleared up in his memories.

His eyes swelled with tears and he slowly staggered back out of the house, his body seconds away from collapsing. The woman stayed where she was with an unchanging smile and her face moving to keep staring straight into his eyes.

"M-M-Mom...?" Alex gasped.

"Yeah? What is it son?" The woman said, closing her eyes and stretching her face out with a deeply humored grin like it was the most natural thing in the world...

**To be continued...**

* * *

**Author's Note:**

And thus Part 6 is done! ...Again. Now that I have set out what I wanted to do with this and Part 5, its time to finally move FORWARD in time with the plot and see what happens after Justek.

Though before that next story starts up, I'll be taking this whole month of October off to get some stuff in order. There were too many breaks during this Part and I only have myself to blame for that.

So come the beginning of November, the next storyline "Clash of the Elements Chronicles", will begin. Why is it called that and not "Part 7"? You'll see.


End file.
